10:36pm: Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times provides the breakdown, with Margot making $7MM in 2023, $10MM in 2024, followed by a $12MM mutual option for 2025 that comes with a $2MM buyout.
2:21pm: The Rays are reportedly in agreement with outfielder Manuel Margot on a two-year, $19MM extension, pending a physical. The terms will begin in 2023 and buy out Margot’s first two seasons of free agent eligibility. The 27-year-old had been on track to hit the open market for the first time after this season. He and the club have already agreed upon a $5.6MM salary for his final arbitration-eligible year, and that reportedly won’t be affected by this extension. Margot is represented by Wasserman.
Margot has spent the past two seasons in Tampa after coming over from the Padres in a 2019-20 offseason trade. In both years, he’s posted slightly below-average numbers at the plate. Margot has tallied 623 plate appearances over 166 games as a Ray, posting a cumulative .258/.317/.375 line with 11 home runs. He’s done well to put the ball in play, only striking out in 15.2% of his plate appearances, but Margot has neither hit for much power nor drawn many walks.
While Margot has been an ordinary hitter for the bulk of his career, he’s an excellent defensive outfielder. Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating have pegged him as a plus gloveman in all five of his full big league seasons. That’s been true regardless of where he’s suited up. Margot is more than capable of handling center field, and he was downright excellent when moving to right field in deference to Kevin Kiermaier last season. No outfielder fared better than Margot in Statcast’s Outs Above Average metric, which pegged him at 16 plays above par.
Tampa Bay has run out strong outfield defenses for years. That’s in large part due to the presence of an otherworldly center fielder in Kiermaier, but players like Margot, Brett Phillips and Randy Arozarena have done well in their own right. The Rays front office seemingly places strong emphasis on outfield defense, so it’s not too surprising they’d like to keep Margot in the fold.
The Rays are set to open the 2022 campaign with a franchise-record player payroll in the $83MM range, according to Jason Martinez of Roster Resource. There are only around $15MM in guarantees for next season, however. The Rays will have another hefty arbitration class, but Tampa Bay is never afraid to move arb-eligible players for younger, more affordable options. Last night’s trade of Austin Meadows to the Tigers fit that bill, and it afforded an opportunity for top prospect Josh Lowe to get an extended major league look.
Lowe, Margot and Arozarena now look to be in place as Tampa Bay’s primary 2023 outfield. Kiermaier is headed into the final guaranteed season of his contract. He’s controllable next year via $13MM club option, but the Rays could look to trade him or simply buy the option out if they’re content with Margot as the everyday center fielder. Tampa Bay has reportedly explored potential Kiermaier deals for a few seasons, but they’ve yet to pull the trigger on such a move.
Margot’s extension removes one of the better center fielders from the upcoming free agent market. Brandon Nimmo is set to headline that fairly thin class, with Kiermaier the second-best option if his option is declined. Beyond that duo, utilityman Enrique Hernández, Tyler Naquin (who’s a better fit in a corner) and veterans Lorenzo Cain and Jackie Bradley Jr. seem to be the top players available.
Tenchy Rodriguez first reported the Rays and Margot were in agreement on a two-year, $19MM extension. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times specified the deal would buy out his first two free agent seasons.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Why? I understand a team like the Rays need some cost certainty, but his career numbers aren’t good.
They’re good against lhp and he’s plus in the of
I’m not sure that any GMs go by career numbers. Margot had a 2.8 bWAR last year, at age 26. And this is likely KK’s last year and the Rays will want a CF.
I like the 2021 Rays better with Meadows and Nelson Cruz in the lineup. I think the 2022 team will not fare as well. Blue Jays and Yankees are definitely better.
Cruz did nothing for the Rays last year. Meadows can get on a tear and carry the team, but otherwise quite average (up and down). I will miss him a bit, depending what the others do.
Worst take in the history of Rays talk
Because usually there are A LOT of corner outfielders available with good offensive numbers and bad defense. Having a CF that can cover for them really opens up the FA market.
This. Why the Rays are among the smartest guys in the room. A day ago people were decrying the Meadows trade for the Rays being cheap. Shows the trade wasn’t solely about money but Meadows wasn’t a fit. A corner OF who can’t hit lefties and is really at best a platoon DH doesn’t fit the MO of the Rays, who promote versatility and all around play.
Paying for career numbers is how you end up like the Rangers or Tigers.
It’s only a 2 year extension. Possibly they want him around to buy some time for some prospects to develop in the minors.
Why he’s not that good
That was my first thought too, but it looks like he was worth 2.8 WAR last year.
Wow!
Good fielding CFrs who can hit like he can are actually pretty valuable these days.
Cosmo2
Good fielding CFrs who can hit like he can are actually pretty valuable these days.
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Way too many fans automatically assume that the bigger name is the better player, and completely under-estimate CF defense.
Given a choice between paying the $78M/4 that the NYMs paid for Marte, or the $19M/2 that Margot will get, it wouldn’t take me two seconds to choose Margot.
Yea I’d rather have Margot than Marte even if they cost the same
I hope that’s 19 total and not 19 per
@I give no Fox- be careful now, isn’t $19 million their entire payroll? At least they could win the AL East, only to come up short in the World Series again. Lol
Sounds like the Yankees in the 21st century.
No that’s the As lmao
Did you miss the part where the article mentioned that the Rays payroll is $83 mil this year?
I mean the guy did an overused joke BUT still it was a joke
Jokes should have a goal of being funny. When the same joke us aired multiple times a day for years? Nope. Time for a new schtick.
Well captain judge, better than spending three times that…and not even winning your division! Imagine if you took all your bitterness and tears and exchanged them for something productive…there’s always football season lol. Oops NY teams aren’t winning championships in that sport either! NBA? Lol
Jealousy is so ugly.
There you go again, letting the rays live free in your head…pathetic
99, Rays live rent free in your head.
Trading Meadows and signing Margot to an extension makes zero sense. But nothing they do seems to make any sense. The Rays seem content with the Yankees paying for their lights and for their rent in that dive they continue to play in.
Meadows is a liability in the OF and he can’t hit lefties anymore…like at all. Margot was more valuable last year and once KK is finally gone, it will be good to know that CF is still well defended. Margot is also above average against lefties. The Rays need all the help they can get in that department.
2021: Margot = 2.8 WAR / Meadows = 2.0 WAR. That really doesn’t make any sense to you? Let me see if I can help you out. 2.8 is more than 2.0. Nothing they do makes any sense? See the Chris Archer Trade and get back to me. Signing Wander Franco to a team friendly extension didn’t make any sense? The Yankees haven’t been to the World Series since 2009 with 4x the Rays payroll. But hey… you can make fun of the stadium. Congrats
The problem wasn’t trading Meadows. It was giving him away. Paredes has been awful in the majors and a comp B pick doesn’t have a ton of value compared to a solid ML hitter
Finally someone who sees reality. Tigers stole him for a one promising young SS prospect who failed three x to unseat Nikko Goodrum and is quickly trending towards 4a. The draft pick is a lottery pick. Tigers gave up 71st pick MLB Draft pick. Since ’99, only 8 taken in that spot have played in MLB, 4 with minus WAR. None since 2015 reached MLB. The best: Justin Masterson (’06) 10.1 WAR. Niko Goodrum (2.3 WAR) was taken 71st overall, as was former QB Brandon Weeden
Nothing is a lottery ticket with the Rays. If the Rays didn’t see something in Paraedes, then they wouldn’t have settled for just him. I trust the Rays and their evaluators more than what anyone else says.
As i see it the comp b pick gives the rays more draft money. Thats huge value
amk1920
The problem wasn’t trading Meadows. It was giving him away. Paredes has been awful in the majors
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Nothing personal, but imo, that’s an awful, awful take.
1-He was 22 last year.
2-The sample size of 72 ABs is laughably small.
3-If you wanted to use a sample size of 72, then you should adjust for the luck factor. His BABIP was .226. It will likely be closer to .300 this year, making his adjusted OPS more like .773. Steamer projects him as .758 and Zips projects him as .753.
4-There is nothing in his minor league resume to suggest he won’t be successful. He had a 47/56 K/W in AAA last year, with 11 HRs in 253 ABs. At age 22, those are pretty good numbers.
you like using WAR to value players? Great! Well maybe the reason the Rays couldn’t get a better return for Meadows had something to do with the fact that his 2021 WAR (2.0) was less than Arozarena, Kiermaier, Margot, and even Brett Phillips (in 24 less games!?). Meadows was the Rays 5th most valuable outfielder in 2021 and Josh Lowe needs to play everyday. Yes, prospects are unpredictable but his tools should produce better than 2.0 WAR (because he is actually an asset in the field and not useless against left-handed pitching). Most fans don’t understand statistics beyond home runs, and there are even some fans that still talk about RBIs as a useful stat for evaluating hitters (not many left out there but still). I’m guessing that many fans are blinded by 2019 when Meadows had a ridiculously high BAbip that was neither sustainable nor most likely repeatable (generally teams don’t sit around praying for luck). If a team can afford a roster spot for a platooning DH, Meadows absolutely rakes vs RHP’s and Comerica actually sets up well for a Lefty power hitter. Maybe Miggy DH’s vs lefties?
This kid just turned 23 years old and people want to write him off as a bust?! Lol
I can only imagine what these fans would have done when Brandon Lowe started his career 0-19. Forget sending him down, they probably would have just released him. Then again, Lowe was older than this kid is now before he made his MLB debut…
It looks like the Tigers just rushed him too early. He needs lots of it bats in Durham and hopefully he can be an insurance policy in case of injury this year. Hopefully his bat progresses, but either way it is far too early to label this kid a bust. Even if he never produces a thing for Tampa Bay, if Josh Lowe turns into the player the scouts think he will be, this trade will STILL be a win for the Rays
He’s not a lost cause but to trade Meadows for him is ridiculous. Rays don’t get everything right. They traded Jake Cronenworth.
What TBRays said. Rays fans, while not many, are as whip smart as their management. Saying this as a non-Rays fan but someone admiring the team from afar. Like the Indians with pitching, Tampa has seemingly cornered the market on player evaluation and not paying for past performance or diminished skills.
Isaac Paredes will get a chance with an organization that will take his development seriously now. The Tigers only focus on their high visibility prospects while they give all the rest a passing glance. People said the same about Eugenio Suarez.
@TBRaysBucsBoltsI like great defenders, who can run as well. Saving a double in the gap by running it down and catching it is just as effective as hitting one. Defence is definitely important, the more of it you have the better. Especially when it comes with great pitching as the Rays seem to always have year in and year out. Rays are just a great ball club. That front office, the people in that building a borderline geniuses for what they do year in and year out with their budget.
Detroit is happy to take a LH platoon OF/DH that can drive in 100, despite his limitations. Only $4MM, with 3 more years of control. Entering his prime. If you have to get taken by Tampa in a trade, its not a bad way to do so.
A 27 year old who’s poor defensively, can’t hit lefties, and whose best year is 3 years ago is not entering his prime. But then again the Tigers are building a lineup around soon to be 30 somethings Schoop, Baez, and Candelairo so Meadows should fit right in. And you do realize that Tiger stadium is even worse than the Trop in suppressing HRs?
Got eem
Why would you care? Maybe because they’ll finish ahead of the Yankees again? Agree…the Trop is a dump. When they have a tight fisted owner, they have no choice.
Yep, the Rays love keeping those yankees around…easy wins. It’s funny, you “pay for our lights”, yet continue to look up at us in the standings!
Nothing they do makes sense? They’re winning divisions, consistently at the top of their division? What standard are you using? One of the MOST INTELLIGENTLY run organizations in the game.
You act like them beating the Yankees at home in front of geriatric yankee fans close to shuffling off this mortal coil is a bad thing.
Weird the Yankees are content with paying for the lights and rent of a team they spend $200million/year to lose to. Kind of pathetic really.
Meadows, the corner OF who’s poor defensively and can’t hit lefties, relegating him to the role of platoon DH? Paying a player based on past performance and fixation on RBIs makes zero sense.
So, a 1 or 2-year extension?
Whoa, he was worth 2.8 WAR last year? His defense must be out of this world.
He’s plus in center but plays mostly in the corner, which led him to 99th percentile in outs above average. Basically the best defense in the corner ur gonna get
So, he’s worth $24M / year, based on the average 2022 WAR payout of $8.5M/WAR.
Margot is great, but that equation saying he’s worth 28 million just proves how useless that stat is for such evaluation. No way Margot is worth 28 million per. No way.
Pretty much
Plus he’s ONLY 26.
He and Meadows are roughly the same age. One has a bright future. The other deemed expendable. With multi tool Joshua Lowe and Vidal Brujan on their way, not too surprising the Rays jumped on the chance to ship out Austin.
For the record, his OPS+ last year was 98, 2% less than average. I think some players, usually defense-first players, get bad hitting reps (JBJ, KK, Margot) even though their hitting is close to league average.
Ah yes, the extend or we’ll trade you routine. Classic.
They’ll trade him. Might be next year, might be before 2024, but he won’t be in St Pete’s for the entire contract.
Ah yes, the clown who doesnt understand its a business with unbalanced playing field comment. Classic.
Defence, pitching and timely hitting. Contact guys, Giants won many World Series that way. It seems to work
Seems backwards but never doubt the Rays
Wow, I thought they were trying to trade him. Now he’s getting close to $10M/yr. over the next two years…how things change in a hurry in Tampa!
No worries. TB will attempt to move him after the season when they realize that he was barely worth the 5m is getting in ’22.
In TB your chances of being traded increase considerably once they’ve extended you. Manuel you have one season to outperform that contract or we’re tossing you overboard…….for a song.
Yeah, we’re trading Franco mid season. He’s too expensive.
Ignore them…these folks constantly criticize the Rays, yet the Rays keep winning, while their teams overspend, underdeliver, and are playing golf by early Oct. Jealousy.
Cpl the usernames (Incl myself) are fans of teams regularly play well into october, if not actually bring home the WS trophy (4 times last 20y). Something Tampa has failed at doing so far, so I’d be careful about throwing around those kinds of insults, especially when TB hasn’t had 1 title yet and slammed big time it’s only WS appearance.
Stop drinking the Staats coolaid he throws out every broadcast and get info elsewhere sometimes. There are dozens way more balanced teams than what TB has.
Jsilver The rays have been in 2 world series but i would not expect a non baseball fan moron to know that
Margot and Phillips make a good tag-team platoon. That’s a great defenisve outfield and if they keep Margot vs LHP and Phillips vs RHP, they’d get decent production hitting wise.
Arozarena, Kiermaier, Margot, Phillips/JLowe…when all your outfielders are centerfielders…
B I N G O
The Mets overpaid 2 guys that used to be able to play CF, to play the coroners most of the time. They moved their LF to CF last year and he did surprisingly well. He also has a history of injuries, and should give out at some point having to play most games in CF (it’s difficult on the body).
The Phillies and Marlins don’t have a true CF. Probably the Braves as well. At least 3-4 other teams have questionable guys playing CF. Even though he’s aging and overpaid, the Brewers will probably be able to unload Cain’s contract to a contender this year.
Yes, the Rays have 5 guys that can play CF. And they rotate them to assure they stay fresh.
Reason #87 why they keep winning during the season while other teams keep winning the offseason.
This is classic.
There’s Word that the Rays are scrutinizing Arozarena’s performance to see if he’s a long term fit. They may even flip him to a team enamored with his back of the baseball card stats. Damn, who runs the Rays. Its cuthroat like Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Ross. 3rd place- you’re fired. 4th place- you’re fired.
If you actuallly follow the Rays, the trade of Meadows and signing of Margot make a lot of sense. You can quibble about Paredes, but he looks like an eventual replacement for Yandy Diaz. The trade can’t really be evaluated until you see what the Rays do with the pick. Lowe and others should be able to replace Meadows production from the LH side for less payroll. Margot is more valuable because of his overall defense and ability to play CF and RF.
What is this, rational thought on the mlbtr DB??? How did you get in here! Why are there no quips about TB being cheap, not having many fans in the stands, or all their terrible trades??? Lol thanks for avoiding the cliches and looking at things objectively. I personally am surprised by the numbers, but he’ll prob be gone after next year anyway. Go Rays!
And arguing statistics as though that presents an objective picture of how a player affects his team winning / losing.
I’m sure franchises have internal stats for that.
Mr. Margot helps his team win games in numerous ways – if one would watch the games instead of looking at spreadsheets or arguing WAR. Knowing the D behind them puts their pitchers at ease; as well as Kevin Cash knowing he can make an in-game move and his D will not suffer. Know of a stat for that?
You can look at spreadsheets and war…they tell you that Margot is a fantastic defender that provides above average value to his team. You might want to try understanding stats before ragging on them
Gee….
I’ve been watching him play.
Does that count?
And I’ve been watching what Cash can do with him on the roster. Does managerial strategy count? Looking high and low for that statistic.
Wow, this is night and day seeing the discussion in this thread compared to the Tiger fans last night, celebrating the fact that “dozens and dozens of real baseball analysts have said that the Tigers totally ripped off the Rays”. It’s like a bus load of Nasa astro physicists enter a time warp and walk into a biker bar set in 1974. Hilarity ensues.
A lot of that is writer drivel. In this entire world, I have never seen more ‘shiny object syndrome’ than with baseball writers. And I am not bashing the Tigers. They lost Greene and had to make a move, and I think this works out for them.
But Paredes, imo, is a real player, and three years from now people are going to be wondering how the Rays got someone like Paredes.
I’m a real baseball fan and I think the Rays won the Paredes trade.
The Delmon Young trade tree continues to grow:
twitter.com/RaysMetrics/status/1511164684728209411…
The rays starting cf next year. All this is about. Rays value defense more than any other team and find themselves very competitive year after year. Meadows was a top prospect whose ceiling the rays saw. He’s a good qulaity bat but reminds me a lot of joc pederson. Plus his defense is subpar.
@ Tom the ray fan;
As I’m sure your know, it’s not just LH / RH bat platooning that Cash does. He not only follows his predecessors with the Rays in changing starting line-ups daily knowing the opposing teams starter and which of their relief pitchers are likely to get into the game, but he makes in-game moves as early as the 3-4th inning based on factors that the average fan – including me – can only guess why.
Cash spotted Meadows well during his Rays tenure. It will be interesting to see how A.J. Hinch plays him. Hinch used advanced stats in Houston (not sure that Detroit’s are up to that level yet), but his Astros stayed pretty much with a set line-up most of the time, along with using bench players at set times. I have no idea how Meadows will come out. Probably was a good trade for both teams.
The Rays are preparing for ‘no shifting’ next year.
@ Tom the ray fan;
As I’m sure your know, it’s not just LH / RH bat platooning that Cash does. He not only follows his predecessors with the Rays in changing starting line-ups daily knowing the opposing teams starter and which of their relief pitchers are likely to get into the game, but he makes in-game moves as early as the 3-4th inning based on factors which the average fan – including me – can only guess why.
Cash spotted Meadows well during his Rays tenure. It will be interesting to see how A.J. Hinch plays him. Hinch used advanced stats in Houston (not sure that Detroit’s are up to that level yet); but his Astros stayed pretty much with a set line-up most of the time, along with using bench players at set times. I have no idea how Meadows will work out. Probably was a good trade for both teams.
That’s a terrible free agent class looking ahead.
How did one of the most important positions in the field become one of the worst all around in the game?
Yeah, you men catcher, right? Oh, CF too? Goodness, man, what I’m the world happened to baseball
And proofreading
Tampa really just said “yeah, Margot’s the guy we’re paying”
I’m guessing the outfield market is thin, so its driving up the price for guys like Margot.
I’ll trust the Rays front office when it comes to making these decisions. You guys stick with MLB the show
Locking him in for the next three years increases his trade value.
Look at the Rays go, man! Spending all that revenue sharing money from the Yankees on players & stuff – no wonder everyone is so proud of them…….
If only they could just, ya know, do it *all* on their own it would be cool too. Baby steps though, I get it. Pat on the head, little Rays…
I miss the good old days when the Yankees could just buy a team. Not to worry, the Steinbrenners are selling soon.
Imagine being the rich older brother who has to watch his younger brother achieve things at his job and has a happy wife and family and just lives a great life while the rich one sits at home alone and cries because he thinks he’s better than everyone and nobody likes him but he thinks having all this money should make people like him and respect him more because of the expensive things he has..,, what a sad life to live as a yankee fan
Brings an entire new meaning to rent free. Yankees pay, Rays live rent free in their heads. It’s great!
Kc, a sad life, yes. But dont forget the rest of the family, with the achievements and happy lives, still suffer because the stupid one does not suffer the pain of or know they are stupid. Its weight is carried by everyone else.
You’re up and about early, YC. One more day to OD!
@Clipper. Spoke too soon. Tomorrow’s opener already postponed. Opening Day will have to wait until Friday.