Matt Carpenter has heard from a few teams about a potential contract, but he is “super prepared for an extremely slow free-agency pace here,” the former Cardinals All-Star told The Athletic’s Katie Woo. “I totally understand that I’m not necessarily a highly sought-after free agent and that there are a lot of unknowns going forward.” Even without the uncertainty of labor talks and a potential transactions freeze looming this offseason, Carpenter likely would have faced a thin market anyway considering his lack of production over the last three seasons.
However, Carpenter sees possible changes to the sport as helpful to his chances of landing a new job. Should the DH come to the National League, for instance, or “the potential of banning and limiting shifts” becomes a reality, Carpenter might draw more interest. Within a week of his 36th birthday, Carpenter reiterated that he wants to continue his career into a 12th big league season, but seemed at peace with whatever the offseason will bring. “If I play, no matter where, I’ll be perfectly happy with that,” Carpenter said. “And if I don’t, and if I’m staying home and going to be a dad and I finished my career with one and only one organization, I’ll be perfectly happy with that as well.”
More from around baseball…
- The Pirates are still “hopeful” of re-signing Yoshi Tsutsugo, GM Ben Cherington told The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Kevin Gorman and other reporters. The two sides were in talks before free agency opened, though Cherington didn’t give any hints about any possible progress towards a deal. Tsutsugo started games at first base and both corner outfield positions for the Pirates in 2021, and while that versatility would still be factored into Pittsburgh’s plans for next season, Cherington did note that “most of our conversations have been around first base.” That doesn’t seem to bode well for Colin Moran, who is currently penciled in as the Pirates’ first baseman for next year, and is (like Tsutsugo) a left-handed hitter. For what it’s worth, Tsutsugo has shown reverse-splits tendencies during his two MLB seasons, though that amounts to only 447 total plate appearances.
- The Braves have six seasons remaining on their current TV contract with Bally Sports, and the team will soon receive an increase in their annual revenues from that deal, Tim Tucker of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes. Beginning in 2023, the Braves will receive over $100MM per year, and that number will rise to close to $120MM by 2027. It isn’t known if this increase will directly impact payroll, but Atlanta president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos has said the Braves have more available to spend in 2022. The TV contract and other details about the team’s business were revealed in a Liberty Media (the Braves’ parent corporation) investors conference this past Thursday, which included Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei saying that there weren’t any plans to sell the Braves. Given all the positive information presented to investors, it isn’t surprising that Liberty Media would want to keep the team, as revenues generally continued to rebound both in the wake of the pandemic, and with the Braves’ World Series run adding even more of a benefit. As Maffei simply put it, “it has been a pretty good run” for Liberty Media since buying the club in 2007.
DarkSide830
I don’t think the DH moves the needle on Carpenter’s market…
The Mets "Missed WAR"
Ok. So the World Champs are on pace to gain almost $100M a year and MLBTR is expecting them to add no top players? Genius.. or stupid.
ExileInLA 2
No – TOTAL revenue will be $100mm. The story doesn’t say what 2021 revenue was.
bhambrave
Their current revenue is $80M, so it will go up $20M in 2023.
oscar gamble
I took it to mean the TV contract was going to be a hundred million, not total revenue.
bhambrave
Total TV revenue from Bally is currently $80M. It goes up to $100M in 2023 and $120M in 2027.
Deadguy
I don’t either
He had a pretty awesome career with some shinning moments in the playoffs late in games. I’d be at peace with playing 10 years for the St. Louis Cardinals and garnishing MVP votes in three seperate years. All things considered this a nice career for a 13th round draft pick
Fever Pitch Guy
Agreed, he had a nice little career but three consecutive years of dramatic declines in OPS tells me it’s not worth offering any kind of contract to him.
gbs42
@Fever – “a nice little career?” He played 10 seasons and won a World Series. Your dismissive comment greatly undersells what Carpenter accomplished.
MLB Top 100 Commenter
Agreed he had an awesome career but it is over now.
sotaguchi
He didn’t win a World Series.
He played a few games in 2011 and wasn’t even close to consideration to be on that years post season roster. They did give him a ring for the few games he played that year, but even by his own admission, he didn’t deserve a ring for his minimal appearances during the regular season.
gbs42
That still doesn’t mean he had just “a nice little career.”
Blue Baron
@Hippyripper: SHINING moments and GARNERING MVP votes are pretty cool as well.
bhambrave
Watch out everyone. The spelling/vocabulary police are out today.
MasterShake
Okay with just making yourself look like one? Go get ‘em!
Blue Baron
No, I was just trying to be kind. You might practice what you preach and try being a little more kind yourself.
Blue Baron
You should ask all the people who do it on the Internet.
bhambrave
I’m asking you.
Blue Baron
And I am not required to explain myself to you.
DarkSide830
lol
iverbure
Who is this stu simpleton? Never mind I’ll just mute the idiot.
MLB Top 100 Commenter
Intelligence is knowing when the other person is wrong. Wisdom is knowing when to refrain from telling them. (Wisdom is also a 3B with the Cubs.)
bhambrave
@Dunedin: Love it. Hoisted by his own petard.
User 1471943197
Hey Stu baron…sure your not related to Paul Bearer???
solaris602
It won’t. The idea about banning shifts is intriguing, but the bottom line is you have to prove you can still hit for a team to consider you at DH. Carp had spent the last 3 years proving otherwise.
bucsfan0004
If Carpenter needs shifts to be banned to get a job, maybe he should just give up.
Deadguy
Right, if you’ve lost the ability to poke a ball through a giant hole and your batting .156 because of it… there’s not much I can say to help his case. Great player, better teammate, and even better person, but the truth is the truth.
Triteon
Any team needing a LOOGY would be thrilled to sign Carpenter. lol
tstats
HAHAHAHA
Tacoshells
Matt Carpenter: the Oakland As 2022 starting third baseman.
kidbryant
Ummm, that would be Matt Chapman
For Love of the Game
I just saw Matt Chapman with a “Make Offer” sign at the A’s yard sale. Everything must go!
A'sfaninUK
A’s would rather start Andrus there and let Nick Allen play SS, if Chapman is moved.
But if Chapman is moved, he’s probably getting moved for a huge 3B mlb player/prospect who could take over immediately.
I kinda do think the Yankees could unload the farm for both Chapman and Olson, which puts DJ back at 2B and they can get one of Seager/Correa/Semien/Story for SS and have a really unbelievable INF. To do this they’d need to give up Urshela, Gleyber, Voit, Jasson, Gil, Schmidt and Deivi, which they should do, as the move makes both teams equally better.
Yankee Clipper
There is simply no way Cashman would do that deal. He cannot part with prospect talent, at all. His penchant for retaining prospects is why we are in this precarious position in the first place.
toomuchpie
Clipper, replace Jasson/Gil with a different, but equal iteration and Cashman jumps at that deal.
BobGibsonFan
Throw in frazier… lol
tstats
And odor
iverbure
I really hope the yanks do get Olson and Chapman. When it’s for much less than A’sfaninUK thinks we can all come back to this ridiculous trade idea. Imagine thinking that’s a realistic return good lord.
rxbrgr
Isn’t Bally going bankrupt? I wonder how much they can back on that future revenue at those levels…
For Love of the Game
Our viewership must be pretty valuable, right?
brandons-3
Viewership would be more valuable if more eyes watched. I’m in eastern North Carolina and am blocked out of Braves games. If MLB could negotiate away blackout restrictions, more eyes = more money.
Deadguy
Anybody who is pressing gambling on professional sports isn’t going bankrupt anytime soon.
That is unless Biff Tannen is the one pressing Jose Altuves buzzer? Then somebody is printing those people enough money to crash the economy? In which case bally will end up the next Goldman Sachs
bravesfan
Pitchers have to adjust to how hitters hit, fields have to adjust to how both the hitter & pitcher, why must we ban the shift so that hitters don’t have to adjust how they hit. It’s silly. I don’t understand why we don’t think the natural evolution of baseball won’t fix this. Hitters pulled the ball because it was easier and they could hit the ball with more authority. The shift starts creeping into play and guys kept hitting to people. So what did the evolution of baseball become? Hit the long ball aka over the shift. Now it’s up to the pitchers to figure that problem out and hitters who can’t hit it over the shift #mattcarpenter, either adjust or find a different way.
bravesfan88
Freeman has been one of the most negatively impacted by the shift, and he still finds ways to get hits.
Although, there is a part of ke that wonders just how good he could be with no shift allowed!! lol
SalaryCapMyth
@bravesfan88. That’s not true. Freeman batted .320 against the shift this last season.
fangraphs.com/players/freddie-freeman/5361/splits?…
See for yourself. Unfortunately, fangraphs doesn’t tabulate home runs and walks because that is irrelevant to to the shift but it’s still useful to see that Freeman is not being victimized by the shift.
UGA_Steve
While it is generally agreed that Freeman does better than many against the shift, it’s because he sacrifices his power stats to get some opposite field hits.
You took just one generally disregarded stat in today’s baseball to make your case. I feel like you knew that and picked just one stat out to prove your case. Since you just took 2021, I will do the same, but the reality is that it goes roughly the same for his career.
Slugging Overall – ..503
Slugging v Shift – .387
OPS Overall – .896
OPS v Shift – .706
ISO Overall – .203
ISO v Shift – .067
As you can see, the shift really hurts all of his numbers except for batting average.
Would you rather see a game of guys trying to dump opposite field flares, or a game as it was designed to be played?
advplee
the game as it’s designed to be played is for hitters to outsmart fielders and pitchers and get hits. If you can’t adjust, quit. What’s next are we going to tell pitchers that can’t throw sliders because a lot of players have trouble hitting them? it’s stupid to ban the shift. I don’t like the shift. but it’s the natural progression of the game.
SalaryCapMyth
What’s the source for your stats? I know fangraphs doesn’t display slugging and that’s the only place I can find shift splits. I would really like a link to your source if you don’t mind.
Additionally, all I said was that Freeman wasn’t being victimized. Also, I would prefer to watch the game as it naturally evolves. The shift forces players to evolve. The game already has way to much home runs. Is two true outcomes what you think of as “the way the sport should be played”?
lady1959
If he still gets hits he’s not negatively affected ⚾️
mj-2
Brb we need to speed up game times
Brb we need to eliminate the shift which helps get outs
Once again MLB with no clear direction with what they want to accomplish.
Yankee Clipper
MJ, you forgot they also want more exciting offense, while simultaneously changing the baseball to reduce said offense.
Dogham
The shift is the worse thing to happen to baseball. It’s terrible for fans to watch and creates the either swing for the fences and hit over the shift or strikeout ABs.
bhambrave
There have always been shifts, and players have always had to adapt. The original placement of defenders was established in the nineteenth century. Are you saying we should go back to 1899 rules?
bhambrave
I don’t think those changes in hitting philosophy were because of the shift. Analytics say that they are more likely to produce runs, regardless of the defensive placement.
I
could be wrong.
solaris602
When I think of the shift the first name that comes to mind is Jason Kipnis. His career might have gone differently if he’d even attempted to adjust, but AB after AB he hit right into it like clockwork. It didn’t help that his defense also deteriorated, but he didn’t do himself or CLE any favors by remaining a strict pull hitter right up to the end of his contract.
gbs42
When I think of the shift, the first name that comes to mind is Ted Williams. He wasn’t the first player to get shifted against, but the defensive alignments teams employed against him so often were the reason it’s called the Williams Shift.
stymeedone
I remember when a 3B fielding stats told you how well they played at 3B, not RF. Go ahead and shift, but two defenders to the left of the bag, and two to the right of it when the pitch is released. Within that range, shift all you want.
Yankee Clipper
I agree with this ^
AHH-Rox
I’d rather say the infielders can move around as they wish, but they have to stay in the infield. No more short fielders in RF; they can’t be further out than the edge of the dirt.
bhambrave
What’s the difference between having a fielder (Shortstop) in short LF, and having a fielder in short RF? I don’t get it.
SalaryCapMyth
Stymee, you definitely have the best argument I have heard so far. I’m a stat head also. But getting rid of the shift for the sake of statistics doesn’t float for me. Statistics, just like batters, will evolve and develop to respond to this.
Thesecondjamie
Honestly forgot about shift possibly being banned. My college brain is too tired from procrastinating/watching yt to remember why this is a thing.
To increase BA? So there’s more traffic on the pathway? And so people can get hits without hitting the ball up? And there will be less k’s theoretically?
gbs42
Yes to everything except your last point. It’s doubtful this would change strikeout rate meaningfully.
jimmyz
I get that Acuna agreed to the deal too so he, and certainly not I, don’t have any right to take issue with this but it’s still pretty messed up that it will take the entirety of his 8 year deal and the bulk of his career earning potential to make 100 million when the ownership group gets that EVERY YEAR just on their TV deal. Which by the way people are watching the games to see Acuna, not Liberty Media executives. Just a random data point for anyone who tends to side with MLB team owners instead of the players during this offseason of labor strife.
Ricky Spanish
So Acuna is worth the entirety of the Braves TV deal? Didn’t the Braves just win the World Series without Acuna? If this tells you anything it’s that no one man is the team and to spend a significant amount on any one player gets you absolutely no closer to winning. It’s a team effort. The best 26 win. If you don’t like it or feel underpaid you can kick rocks. Your replacement is nothing more than a trade away.
jimmyz
I never said Acuna is worth the whole deal, the Braves did win the World Series without him (for half the season) and there are literally a couple thousand guys in the minors gunning for any MLB gig so you are right on all accounts.
My point was that ownership has the players’ balls in a vise grip financially which you partially proved with your last two sentences. There’s an insane amount of money floating around in MLB and the only insight we as fans ever get to see is through the Braves because of their ownership structure having to legally report things that no other teams are required to do because MLB has been grandfathered into an antitrust situation from the federal government for about 100 years now. Taxpayers build their ballparks and if not the team leaves as the Oakland A’s are soon to do, fans watching the games give teams crazy TV deals (indirectly because the real money in TV deals comes from selling commercials to the fans), people who actually go to games spend at least twice as much for a beer and meal than they would at a bar or restaurant right next door, international prospects agree to deals at ages that would violate domestic labor laws, players are unable to negotiate their contractual situation for six years after they made they majors which is often four or more years after playing in the minors (and the entire minor league pay scale is straight up f’d) and owners sit back and pay people (possibly more than their 5th pitcher gets in annual salary especially if your a fan of a team like the Pirates as I am) to count and calculate their finances. How is any of that ok? I get that ownership of any business deserves to harvest the fruit of their employees’ labor but in most other types of industry there isn’t a single one of those situations that isn’t outright illegal.
HistoryBelongstotheVictorsInArms
Such whiny Neuvo-Socialist nonsense. For every complaint you just voiced, you fail to note that at every single level where these pay structures are in place (MLB, MiLB, Int’l Signings), these structures represent the most lucrative, best offered benefits and best level of competition with the greatest room to further grow coupled with greatest access to coaches, health professionals, trainers, equipment, and means of craft study in the world in their field. If all you ever reach is MiLB, and you worked hard and did your best, then the best you’ll have returned is the best MiLB could offer you. The idea that kids should hit the Majors and have access to the pay structure of UFA’s pretends that all of the coaching, health resources and study resources that went into them + their original agreed upon signing bonuses, all were just, poof, free out of thin air to the owners.
I’m not defending Billionaires’ pocketbooks, but I am respectful of the fact that they know what they’re doing a lot better than I would. And the players agree. Otherwise they wouldn’t all be Flocking, hoping, praying for the chance to slip on one of their jerseys one day. Just because they’re negotiating for things that may refine the process, improve conditions and further the collective goal held by all of winning championships, doesn’t mean the entire system is awful, criminal, and filled with victims and victimizers.
BobGibsonFan
Jimmy – you didnt not say it, so you are saying it. I learned that from liberal college class.
Rking
At the time he signed a record breaking deal for his service level, he traded security then for future earnings. That’s the way it works in every risk / reward deal in and outside of baseball. Should the Yankees ask for money back from Aaron Hicks?
jimmyz
HistoryBelongstoVictorsinArms- I appreciate both of your well thought and articulated responses to my rambling posts. I whole heartedly agree that the owners deserve a return on their investment in these players. However I feel as though the scales are currently pushed too far in the owners’ favor and that if the player’s union is unable to regain ground to establish a more equitable situation for both parties during this round of negotiations then they will lose any semblance of solid ground to plant their feet into for future negotiations. Ultimately, in my opinion, if the MLBPA gives ground to the owners demands/desires in order to ensure there is a baseball season in 2022 then the current domestic high school kids or grade school aged international kids who will be most affected by these labor negotiations will have no chance of ensuring anything close to fair wages for their services.
Though I assume it was most likely an afterthought of your reasoning, your statement that the collective goal of all is to win championships is kind of a litmus test of the system as a whole. Do you really believe that Bob Nutting who has owned the Pirates since 2007 is trying to win championships? Conversely is Dick Monfort who owns the Rockies truly obtuse enough to believe his team has the talent to win a championship? Or are they both making boatloads of money by putting out an inferior product relative to their peers with absolutely no repercussions whatsoever? I think it’s the last scenario and when it’s clear that owners can and will make money by losing then they don’t need to pay fair wages to players so some won’t. It’s a terrible business model.
HistoryBelongstotheVictorsInArms
I must say, that is a way more workable and reality staked position to take my friend. While I don’t think future players will need to find second jobs due to equity scales being tipped so far into ownership’s favor (not that you said they would, I use that as a correlation to many people who find themselves having to do so in what would be the early to mid peak earning years of their lives {normal people in their early to mid 30’s = players in early to mid 20’s when considering earning years and relative earning potentials}). Though I certainly see where grievances and a need for improvements in the wages and working conditions process itself would be wise gains to grab as well as more of a voice when it comes to things like a vote in rules and regs within the chalk as they’re (players) the only ones who will directly pay the price for bad decisions made in those meetings.
And while Pit and Col aren’t likely in the hunt anytime soon, I think one has to believe that THEY believe they’re somewhere along the build process TOWARD that championship. Idk these particular owners’ backgrounds, but these things TEND to be passion projects that hopefully churn enough of a financial engine to not burn a hole in the owners’ pockets. Rarely are they the bread and butter of the family business. The idea (generally) that these are a purse for owners, as absolutely insane as it is to think in a holy monopoly money Batman sorta way, it just doesn’t pan out that way. These are luxury, status symbol assets. 9/10. Ownership would prob be shifting Rickets (sp?) if they were looking to make their dime off the team.
Dustyslambchops23
He got a huge salary last year after tearing his acl. It’s massively team friendly but that’s why players jump at the chance. How many players have had early injuries, never been the same and end up play in the minors for peanuts for 10 years. It’s all relative.
I’ll take a guaranteed 100 mil over a chance at 200 mil any day. If he has a good accountant and makes some good investments he can make more than enough to feed his great great great grandkids
mj-2
Is it really a massive team friendly deal? People forget 2 of those years were pre-arb seasons where he would have made $500k each.
Now we’re down to 6 years and $99 million.
Then you’ve bought out his arb years. And sure he would have seen a nice bump, but his first and second years likely wouldn’t have cleared $15 mil in either of them. His 3rd likely would have been hefty.
But he’s only losing 3 free agent years, plus 2 more if you count the options on the contract.
But really this wasn’t as team friendly as people make it out to be. Acuna didn’t get robbed. The people who think he did don’t know how contracts work in MLB. They think he would be making $20 mil during his pre-arb years because he’s good enough to make that…. But that’s not how it works.
Albies on the other hand was absolutely robbed.
jimmyz
You think his three free agent years aren’t worth 100 million alone? How much did Bauer get in the first two years of his Dodgers deal when he could opt out? 80 million?
jimmyz
If Cody Bellinger is making more than 15 million in his second arbitration year than Acuna would be be close to 20 for the same year. If he had gone through arbitration I wouldn’t be surprised if Acuna got around 80 million before reaching free agency. But that’s kinda my whole point, the team gets to have him under contract for less than half a million for three years. All the risk is his in those years, all the rewards go to ownership.
StudWinfield
All the risk for the entire contract was assumed by the team once he signed. The only risk maintained by Acuna is not being worth his 2 option years, which, if he’s healthy, is unlikely.
These early deals are all about selling risk to the teams. Acuna valued his production and health risks through age 3O at $100 mill guaranteed. Tatis’ value was $300 mill through age 35. Very interesting to see what Franco may agree to. My speculation is leveraging 2 or 3 free agent years. That will make him a FA at 25/26.
jimmyz
He already made enough to take care of his grandkids’ grandkids when the ink dried on the contract. My point is that the company he works for paid their grandkids’, grandkids’, grandkids’, grandkids’, grandkids way through live just off him.
Backup Catcher to the Backup Catcher
It’s a rare person who could not set himself/herself up for life with $100 million bucks. Heck, one could most likely take care of the kids and the grand kids’ futures, as well.
No one ever went broke keeping the bird-in-the-hand. On the other hand (Pun intended!), those supposed two-birds-in-the-bush sometimes fly away and are never caught.
All you need to never be wrong is to somehow get a copy of tomorrow’s newspaper today.
Braveslifer
Businesses are in business to make money. If you’re jealous of rich people/corporations, don’t buy that company’s products/services.
Samuel
For the life of me I don’t understand how the Braves won the WS with those evil corporate owners of theirs that didn’t give AA a blank check to overpay every available FA. They could have kept Donaldson! Instead they’re paying some kid 20% of what he’s making.
CHEAPSKATES!
And BTW, that manager of theirs always screws up in the post-season. They probably had him tied up and were taking orders via twitter from an Atlanta sports talk show host.
Giant Steps
Brian Snitker out-managed the opponent in every series of this postseason. He did a terrific job, and he’s one of the reasons we won it all. If you want to argue he should not have started back to back rookies, be my guest, but nearly every other move paid off.
BobGibsonFan
It was because of those racist voting laws.
Kevin28786
Yeah, because we all know minorities are too stupid to get an ID. Rednecks on the other hand have that thar ID thang down pat.
ShootyBabbit
Who hurt you?
Samuel
@ ShootyBabbit;
You just did.
Psychobabble by a lamebrain.
Couldn’t make the cut for a SNL position?
Dunedin020306
@BobGibsonFan – It would be more accurate to say “It was because of those “racist” voting laws.”.
Deleted_User
LOL
inkstainedscribe
Whatever you think of LM as owners, I appreciate the fact that at least one franchise has to be transparent with its business operations.
citizen
What you smokin? I agree on not resigning Donaldson, the braves needed a bat to protect Freeman. But Donaldson hasnt been good for the twins. The braves had reiley and comargo the time. They did spend on the OF, no one could see azunas problems commimg. I’m sure spending worked out well for the 89 or 2021 Mets or the 2009 or 2010 Phillies.
slideskip
ruling on dh should have already been made.
Backup Catcher to the Backup Catcher
I want the DH in the NL. I’m okay with doubleheaders being seven-inning games. However, do not like starting extra inning games with a runner on second base.
To wit, the potential wining run should have to earn its way on base.
Dunedin020306
@Backup – I agree with 2 of your 3 points, with my only disagreement being I see no need to truncate a doubleheader game for the sake of “expediency”. I have never understood why any true baseball fan would want and support LESS baseball.
DarkSide830
yeah, don’t get it. and being a younger fan myself I dont see why they assume it will keep or attract younger fans.
citizen
I don’t want the dh in the NL. Weakens the game. Boring 9 up 9 down with no substitutions.
John Smoke
Mustard on tha beat hoe
DS1
Acuna and Albies knew exactly what they were doing when they signed their contracts. How does paying someone millions equate to robbery?
jimmyz
Because the system is rigged against them. They both signed their contracts and agreed to the terms. I get that and have no qualms about their personal reasons for doing so, but they both shortchanged themselves for life changing money now in exchange for making genenerational life changing money in a few years. The reason both of these very team friendly deals occurred is because neither player is able let alone guaranteed to get those same offers in a few years. Time will tell if they made the right decisions. Maybe Acuna never recovers from his torn ACL and wouldn’t get a huge 5+ year deal when he got to free agency. Much harder to see Albies not beat the deal he signed but maybe he needed the money now. Who knows other than them and their closest circle of people. What most fans don’t care to think about or even realize is that any professional athlete is done in his or her career roughly at the age of 30. They still live to be 70 or 80 like the rest of us. They have to maximize their earnings in their playing days because they hopefully have more than twice as long after their career is finished to live off of those earnings. I for one would be absolutely screwed if my income dropped over 10 thousand percent after I turned 32 years old.
HistoryBelongstotheVictorsInArms
Yeah, but take one year of their salaries and invest in a truly diversified portfolio to include exotic hedges (Life Settlements, Small Business Notes of Ownership, etc.) and let those compound and by the time they retire in their early to mid thirties, they’ll have a huge pool of money engines working and waiting for them that will churn out capital while they sort out what comes next. And as a former Major League Player, almost any coaching job, televanalyst (lol) job, or columnist position can be had without much worry or concern for experience. Plus you’ll have capital to create so many pools of passive income. I really don’t understand why people feel professional athletes are victims of a system that they prayed and hoped and dreamed to be a part of. It’s a false narrative.
Rking
The Braves took a similar kind of risk with Ender, and had to eat a lot of dead money on that deal.
Dunedin020306
@History the problem here is you and jimmy are talking different languages; you’re talking rational truth and commons sense and his stance is driven by his own subjective feelings.(e.g. he said “However I FEEL as though the scales are currently pushed too far in the owners’ favor and that if the player’s union is unable to regain ground to establish a more equitable situation for both parties during this round of negotiations then they will lose any semblance of solid ground to plant their feet into for future negotiations.”). jimmy apparently seems to “feel” the players (i.e. the “labor”) are automatically owed something, which is the feeding narrative of socialism. But that “logic” ignoes something important. The bottom line reality is, using jimmy’s own broken “logic”, the owners (i.e. the “capital”) putting forth the funds to make MLB and functioning operating machine should also be “owed” something as well, due to their investing their money into a business. Socialists tend to ignore that reality.
OptimusCrime
Thanks Dennis Prager!
Dunedin020306
@OptimusCrime – Thank you. I will take that as a compliment’ Dennis Prager speaks with good sound common sense and conservative values, and hasn’t been blinded by the unholy lies of Progressive Liberalism.
HistoryBelongstotheVictorsInArms
@DuneDino Well said. Very well said there sir!
And as all of us with a stern male role model in our lives have heard: “feelings don’t matter here. It’s business/baseball/bootcamp/boy scouts, etc.” lol, ya get my point I am sure haha.
Dunedin020306
@HistoryBelongstotheVictorsInArms – What I think I hear you saying, quoting a classic baseball movie, is “There’s no crying in baseball!”.
Backup Catcher to the Backup Catcher
$100 million isn’t life changing money!
HistoryBelongstotheVictorsInArms
@Backup Ha! If that’s true, I don’t think there’s any amount of earning to keep ya from ending up destitute…
bhambrave
Albies had a serious wrist injury in the minors, so maybe he wanted to lock in life-changing money and the Braves took advantage of it. He’s had wrist and knee injuries since then, so maybe he’s ok with the deal. I agree it’s absurdly low given his talent level, but it’s guaranteed. There’s a lot to be said for that.
Happyfoolsteve
Maybe the Orioles would be a good spot for Carpenter. I know he hasn’t been even mediocre for a few seasons, but he’s a veteran with experience and possibly could fill an infield gap until guys like Westburg and Henderson are ready. At least you could throw him in with Urias, Mateo, Gutierrez, etc. and see who shakes out.
getrealgone2
I thought so too. If he somehow gets it together again. You flip him for something.
bobtillman
The only Carpenter who can help the Orioles was born 2,000 years ago.
Dunedin020306
Good one bobtillman! However, that is true for all of us, not just the Orioles…
DarkSide830
this. this comment is brilliant.
❤️ MuteButton
It’s kind of sad that Matt Carpenter doesn’t seem able to accept the fact that he can’t play anymore. It happens to everybody and it has definitely happened to him.
Kevin28786
He seems to have accepted it, he’s just not giving up on it.
Treehouse22
Ben “hopeful” of re-signing Tsutsugo……well, “hopefully “, he understands that Yoshi will cost at least $3-4 million per year after he mashed for nearly two months last season. His agent is probably saying “ hope in one hand and poop in the other, and see which one fills up first”.
joblo
They just paid $2M to Jose Quintana so there’s that.
Treehouse22
As it turns out, BC was aware that Yoshi would require $4 mil. Great news!
JimmyForum
But in reality, Matt Carpenter has heard from as many teams as I have. Zero. At least I can admit I suck at baseball.
MLB Top 100 Commenter
Like Tsutsugo for Pirates. Cheaper than frozen Carp.
48-team MLB
It doesn’t have to be back-to-back but I’m going to need another title during this competitive window for Atlanta.
Spare Tire Dixon
Does a package including Pache, Muller, Wright get Cedric Mullins out of Baltimore? Or would it take more?