Nationals principal owner Mark Lerner expressed doubt about his franchise’s ability to re-sign both Anthony Rendon and Stephen Strasburg this offseason, as Lerner told NBC Sports Washington’s Donald Dell. (Todd Dybas of NBC Sports Washington has early details about the interview, which will take air in full on Dell’s show on December 17.)
“We really can only afford to have one of those two guys,” Lerner said. “They’re huge numbers. We already have a really large payroll to begin with….We’re pursuing them, we’re pursuing other free agents in case they decided to go elsewhere. Again, it’s not up to us. We can give them a great offer — which we’ve done to both of those players. They’re great people. We’d be delighted if they stay. But it’s not up to us, it’s up to them. That’s why they call it free agency.”
MLBTR’s ranking of the winter’s top 50 free agents (which, incidentally, predicted both Rendon and Strasburg would wind up back in D.C.) projected Rendon for a seven-year, $235MM deal and Strasburg for six years and $180MM. That works out to a little more than $63.57MM in average annual value if the Nationals were to land both players at those projected prices, and since Roster Resource’s Jason Martinez estimates the Nats’ current luxury tax number at just under $135.32MM, that would bring the total to roughly $199MM.
This leaves Washington with some wiggle room under the $208MM luxury tax threshold to add more roster upgrades beyond only Rendon and Strasburg, though surpassing the tax threshold seemingly wouldn’t be a problem since the Nats were willing to pay the tax in both 2017 and 2018. By ducking under the threshold last season, the Nationals would again be charged at the “first-timer” rate of a 20 percent tax on the overage of any payroll that falls between $208-$228MM. Since Adam Eaton, Anibal Sanchez, Sean Doolittle, and Kurt Suzuki could all come off the books after the 2020 season, the Nationals could potentially even get back under the 2021 threshold ($210MM) or at worst pay another minimal penalty by staying within the $210-$230MM range.
Of course, the Nats would further shave more money off their payroll with other moves, or Rendon and Strasburg could also end up costing more money than our projected figures. But, strictly speaking, there isn’t any real financial barrier preventing the club from re-signing both players. Lerner’s declaration could be something of a tactic, Dybas writes, since it would be “poor negotiating” to “flatly state the organization is going to find a way to pay both….Being in between serves multiple needs: It keeps the door open on each player; it stirs the market without roiling it; it prepares fans for an outcome they don’t prefer.”
While the Nationals haven’t been afraid to spend big on free agents or player salaries in general, they face a unique situation in having two star players (both represented by the same agent, Scott Boras) hit the open market at the same time. Several teams have already been linked to both players, including some of the game’s wealthiest franchises — the Dodgers have spoken to both, while the Rangers have interest in Rendon, and the Phillies and Yankees are known to be interested in Strasburg. Since the bidding will be high for both players, the Nats could re-direct their resources towards one player in particular if the price tag for the other becomes truly untenable.
Absolute garbage: the billionaire can afford them both easily, he just doesn’t want to personally, because he’s hoarding his money and nothing else.
Why doesn’t MLBTR put the net worth of the owners next to their quotes about how they “cant afford” players? I would love that.
Mark Lerner is $5.4B, btw 🙂
Yes, he should spend all of his money on a recreational entertainment! Forget the soup kitchens, single parents, drug treatments, and the disabled. Let’s put all our money on gifted athletes! Riot.. for these guys.
What if….he did both??? 😉
What if….we. the people, forced him to via voting for govt regulations on excessive wealth? 🙂
Found the commie
Lol they actually think this is controversial
Just remember exactly how much a billion dollars is… now imagine having 5 of them
Sure. Let’s steal money from rich people. Good plan.
Go visit Venezuela for a few months, then tell us all how well it works out when we eat the rich. But hey, I’m sure socialism will totally work the 10,001st time it’s tried. Those first 10,000 failures were just bad luck
Imo they lose both of them, Rendon goes to the rangers , Strasburg might stay or the padres. Possibly the phillies or white sox.
if they lose both id imagine Rizzo is gone
I think winning the WS gives Rizzo a little rope
you can ask Dombrowski how the same worked out for him.
FACTS
If the owner is acknowledging they can’t have both, then I think he understands it’s a possibility to lose both. he’s the one that’s approving this deal, not the GM.
His inability to make moves after the WS and Sale extension doomed him
Dombrowski didn’t win the red Sox first championship in franchise history either…
Completely different situation
No but he may have won their last one for a while. He emptied a stacked farm system!
I’m with Cory. Rizzo has some leash. And he’d still be able to field a competitive team without them.
Ruzzo isn’t going anywhere, even if they both leave. What he does with all that payroll becomes a critical question
Mookie betts in 2021?
If they lose Both Rendon & Strasburg , Idk how good they will be without them. They gotta lock Soto up long term while they can, If they miss on Rendon then they might get Donaldson or make a trade. Strasburg might stay or possibly the padres or phillies , I don’t think the Yankees will dish out over 200 plus for him or Cole so .
Soto is also a Boras client. Still years away but clock is ticking on his free agency as well
Rendon goes to Anaheim. The Last time the rangers gave out a huge contract they were broke after 3 seasons. And it was also the time when arod started using peds steroids and everything else.
Well that’s a big ish….I have to say that Rendon should be re-signed. The Nats already have enough pitching with Scherzer, Corbin, and Sanchez.
Oh yeah, and I chose both of them to sign with the Nats in the Free Agent Predictions!!! 🙁
Sign Donaldson, Castellanos(1B), and Porcello. Trade a dirt prospect for Jordan Zimmerman.
Run this thing back. Nats, back-to-back!
Castellinos to 1B is a terrible idea. He has never played a single major league game at that position. He already lacks any kind of aptitude on the field so why do you think it’s a good idea to move him to a position he hasnt played?
Smh. Fans like you that think you can just take any player and move him to another position which he has zero experience at and you think it will be okay.
Agreed. While 1B may generally be the easiest position to play, it’s still not so easy that just anyone can move from another position and do it. Just ask Matt Holliday how that experiment turned out for him.
Ya gotta love the media and twitter uproar this caused… the gall of potentially not being able to fit the 2nd AND 3rd best FAs available in a booming market..
The Nats just won a WS, have competed for almost a decade straight.. have signed the top SP on the market 2 of the last 5 offseasons.. while extending Strasburg to 7/175M.. and people still call them cheap.
I think they’ve earned just a bit of trust they have things covered.
Mark Lerner’s net worth is $5.4 billion. He can afford every single FA on the market, every single year.
Ok, Karl.
but if the business loses money he has to pay out of his pocket and every dollar spent on baseball is one less dollar his children will inherit.
Think of the children.
Yeah the children will only have 2 billion instead of 2.5 oh no!!
MLB has never lost any of its teams owners any money in decades, and makes exponentially expanding profits every single year lmao
It’s called a joke. I get it, you hate wealthy people but relax. Baseball is supposed to be fun.
Good for them. Smart business decisions.
No, I got it and upvoted you – lol
Most people that hate rich people have a complex! It’s called, I was a rich spoiled brat but my parents spent my trust fund to support their lazy asses! How dare they spend their money I’m entitled to!? Don’t hate the system nor the ones that have been successful instead of lying around expecting handouts, freebies and undeserved rations of the tax monies paid in by these billionaires, all because people choose to have unprotected sex and have children, then settle for said jobs paying $50k a year!
lol. found a boomer ^
You don’t like Boomers?
@BBFreak
I think your comments are over the top.
His networth is the sum total of what he is worth. You think he should liquidate his assets to sign on what will amount to a contract total somewhere around $400 million?
I don’t know any billionares, do you? I don’t think you or I would be any different if we had that much money.
As a Giants fan who watched my team battle the Harper led Nats…. I think it’s awesome that they won a WS after he walked. Kinda sucks they might lose one or both of these guys. I wish they could stay together and try to defend their crown.
Typical Lerners, what he really is saying is, “neither guy is keen on having huge deferrals in his contract and we refuse to offer purely present day value contracts.”
It would be beneficial for the players to take a deferral from a tax standpoint. Honestly I’m not surprised more players don’t take it. usually they give a % interest rate guaranteed.
Lerners try to do deferrals with no interest. That is the main reason why players don’t take their deferral heavy deals.
I think that is something to take into account. but still the tax savings over spreading it over more years is quite substantial. Not saying its ideal, but for example, if you move to state with no income tax in the years after the contract, you save money that way as well..
Another thing to consider is what the salary cap impact is. Do the Nationals save on the salary cap by giving him this contract with no implied interest?
Rendon to become a Doyer.
I think he heads home to the rangers
He’s from houston…
Both in Texas…
You guys are funny….Rendon will head to whoever offers the most money….why do you think he turned down the Nat’s offer before the season was over to begin with…way too much about this “going home” stuff….the modern athlete is going to sign for every penny they possibly can.
Unless its the Marlins. If they offered him 500mil for 5 years and 5% of team ownership he wouldnt go there.
Between the lines: “Well either I sign both, OR I put up the money for one and then buy another yacht. Money is really tight right now after our World Championship.”
Lerners & Rizzo: Nats have the money to keep both top digs here! Don’t be cheap-think Yankees style. not signing both will give you no shot at a repeat or even an NLCS. Pay your fans and season tix holders back by showing that you mean business ! The pkayers won the WS, no it’s time tgat owners
The price of success. No bad guys here.
Not what he meant, but, because of the Boras factor, there’s a cost beyond the salary as well.
Boras likes to hold his premier guys on the market a long time, if the player is willing.
What this means is a team needs to invest resources in a back-up plan just to wait it out, rather than leaving areas of the roster non-addressed, if they are a serious contender.
Nats will be fine Soto & Robles will improve & Kieboom will come up and put up readonable numbers.
I think that is the owners way of getting out. They already have Max & Corbin I would let Strasburg walk.
They already got good to great years out of him. Whoever signs him will regret those backend years.
Rendon is a great player but not worth what he will be getting this contract. They did their thing got their rings now move on before you get to those regret years.
I’m with you on Strasburg. I have the feeling he’ll spend quite a bit of time on the DL and his signing team will be paying big time money for what he did in DC.
Then again, I’m a fan of the team paying a guy huge money for what he did in St. Louis so I might just be jaded.
Good point. Learn a lesson from Pujols.
Rendon is absolutely worth what he will be paid espically if its the short term deal he is rumored to want.
why don’t they just defer everything 30 years down the road like they always do?
Here is a solution, the nats keep Stras, and the rangers get Rendon… Done.
No way they win a World Series if Harper walks. Pay the man.
Either sarcasm or dementia, one or the two… lol
That’s what I figured when I put down my predictions. If they were smart it would be Strasburg coming back
They are both going to get overpaid, so…
Let’s not forget that the Nats are a business. Being in the red is not a good thing !
The Nationals don’t really need either player to stay relevant and reach the post season. Strasburg was an absolute beast in the post season last year, but he’s been up and down his whole career, injured a lot. Paying him 30 or 35m per for 6 or 7 years is a huge risk. Rendon is a top 10 player in all of baseball, but there’s a ready-made replacement already in the system with Kieboom.
I would just make sure to resign Howie Kendrick to play 1b, pick a 2b or two off the scrap heap, and sign some guys for the bullpen.
Without Strasburg and Rendon they get swept in the NLDS. They will absolutely struggle without them.
If they replace Rendon with Donaldson, they’ll be alright.
I mean, they had quite a few years with both Rendon and Strasburg where they didn’t make it out of (or even to) the DS…
I thought Kendrick already signed in Tampa?
Cole goes to the Dodgers
Stras stays
Rendon goes to Texas
Zim resigns
The way MLBTR publishes their interpretation of teams payrolls is ridiculous.
They take the average of a projected long-term signing, and add it to contracts due the coming year.
While a new long-term contract will usually be far lower the first few years, their costs go up exorbitantly in the later years. Then you have to add in young stars such as Soto, Robles, and Turner that will be looking for substantially more money in the next few years. Right now the Nationals have long-term contracts on the books that will be going up over the next few years. Add in more and at some point you are where the Red Sox are today. And imagine if Boras had sold them Harper for 2019.
MLB team have qualified, credentialed financial people running what-if spreadsheets for the executives regarding payroll costs in the out years as they go about assembling their team for 2020 and beyond.
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Along those lines I love it when the kids posting on here call the owners “cheap”. The other day they were calling the Cubs owner cheap because he won’t give Theo lots more money this year. Last year ownership funded the highest payroll in MLB to finish in 3rd place of a weak division. Those long-term contracts with salaries going up each year sure can hurt a franchise.
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This isn’t funding the government where you just spend and spend, blame it on someone else, and stick the overage on the taxpayers.
Yeah. It is. It comes every year w the team should have more to spend slant. It fails to mention how much cash Lerner has been leveraging every year. He’s been leveraging his payroll w deferred payments to spend at the level he has been. It also says nothing of how the Nationals have spent in relation to other teams w similar revenues. Why? Because the Nats have surely been spending more than others w similar revenue figures. I can promise you that.
If there’s one thing you can not say about Mark Lerner it’s that he’s been a cheap owner. More than likely he just does not want to have multiple 150+ million guarantees on the books. They greatly reduce future flexibility. Especially w a team in the Nats position.
Let’s also not forget that people get lazy when they are comfortable. See the Dallas Cowboys for the only example you need.
they do it that way so we understand the luxury tax implications – which is an average per year of the players salary and signing bonus.
Don’t say they Mark; you’re gonna hurt ticket orders and your gonna see a huge boost with the World Series win
wut?
A couple of things will pad the Nationals’ coffers a bit in the near future. They will recoup some revenue out of the MASN settlement whenever it’s finalized. The Lerners also plan to sell naming rights to Nationals Park. They have been waiting for the WS win to maximize the value on that deal. I hate to see it, but that’s life in the big leagues these days. Just hope they stay away from some ridiculous sponsor that makes the name clumsy and forgettable.
You mean you wouldn’t like the name Uber park?
I can think of a lot worse. Preparation H comes to mind.
The cycle has ended, all free agents are not worth what they get. The best options for teams to get players is through the draft, after that by trades. Free agents should only be signed to put a team over the top.
The Lerner family’s net worth is $5.4B per Forbes. They are the second wealthiest owner in MLB. In 2018, before winning the World Series, the Nationals revenue was estimated at $336M. Their payroll in 2019 was $172M, which doesn’t include ALL expenses, but I bet they did not lose money.
The idea he can’t afford two big contracts is ludicrous. Don’t believe it.
He worded it poorly. Of course they can afford $60m+ for the pair next year. It’s more a matter of committing that $60m+ to a pair of guys in their late 30s 7-8 years from now.
It makes a ton of sense to swap out one of those contracts for a 3-5 year deal for Bumgarner, Ryu, Donaldson or Didi. Would go a long way to keeping them out of albatross hell.
And it’s not like they’re guaranteed to make the WS or even the playoffs with both of them rostered next year, or like they would be kissing contention goodbye with the swap-out. Plus would leave them another $10m to play with this year.
The Nationals giving out multiple 150+ million dollar deals this offseason would simply mean they’re waving goodbye to Soto and Turner in the future. The well was going to dry up there. He’s been leveraging cash to sign all these players using deferrals. I don’t know if any team in baseball has given out more deferrals in contracts than the Nationals. Whatever the AAV their payroll is, is not his yearly payroll expense. That cash spending is being smoothed out over longer terms. Lerner has been operating this way all the way back to the Jayson Werth deal.
That’s to say nothing of how extremely terrible it is to have 100’s of millions of dollars owed to a handful of individuals on your roster. That’s how you wind up like the SF Giants. It sucks initially when a guy like Strasburg goes, but in the end, it’s more likely that you end up being the winner of Strasburg’s choice to go elsewhere.
Would love for the Mets to get Strasburg especially since they’ll have a lot of $$ coming off after 2020 he can slot into the #2 spot behind deGrom in front of Syn.
It’s interesting that my comment about socialism got deleted. If we’re going to talk politics at all (which Strike Four consistently does), then don’t censor the comments.
Same here.
There are a number of kids on here that point black insult older posters – the “OK Boomer” thing to start – or anyone bringing up personal or financial responsibility.
What’s interesting is that when people respond to them in like terms, that persons posts are deleted while the kids’ remain up.
It’s a nice place to read updates in the articles – although one has to put up with the politicking against the owners. They seem to not realize that MLB is a product sold to fans. What they’re promoting makes it harder and harder for fans in small and most medium markets – the majority of MLB fans around the country – to have their team contend for more then 2 years every 6-10……if they’re successful. And wait when you see what happens if they allow players to be free agents in 4 years – as it takes most players a year-and-a-half to be productive in MLB. Then rumors will start about the team needing to trade the guy for prospects when they have 2 years of control left.
So be it.
And Jerry Seinfeld really should stick with that medium bag of popcorn. 94 years old, $5.4 billion! What in the world is he saving it for? It’s a damn sight harder to spend in the dirt.
If they only get one nats better hope its STRASBURG. You can give a massive amount of credit to his playoff pitching for winning that world title. Rendon is phenomenal but they have plenty of hitting and his production can be replaced easier than a shutdown ace pitcher. It would be tough for me to see strasburg in a jersey that’s not the nats.