By Alex Walsh | at
Bill Ladson of MLB.com reports a mutual interest between the Washington Nationals and talented free agent Mark Teixeira. "[Maryland] is his home," mentions an anonymous source in Ladson’s article. The source also sets Miguel Cabrera’s eight-year, $153MM deal as a benchmark for Teixeira’s next contract.
Presumably, any hometown discount afforded the Nationals would also apply to the Baltimore Orioles, another team widely assumed to be on Teixeira’s short list of favorable destinations.
By Tim Dierkes | at
ESPN’s Jayson Stark has a new Rumblings and Grumblings up; let’s take a look.
By Tim Dierkes | at
4:08pm: John Lowe has the year by year breakdown and adds that there are ten teams Cabrera can be traded to without his permission.
TUESDAY, 12:44pm: Cabrera’s seven-year extension is official. $20MM a year is a solid price for 25 year-old superstar who has never been injured. And Cabrera sets himself up for one more massive deal, just like A-Rod did.
MONDAY, 8:57am: Though we don’t have an official announcement and press conference from the Tigers yet, it’s obvious that an agreement has been reached. Sabernomics thinks Cabrera will be worth $268MM over this time period; PECOTA feels differently. Cabrera will only be 32 when this contract ends. Though their ages don’t match up, Jim Salisbury and Todd Zolecki believe this deal could be a comparable for Ryan Howard.
SUNDAY, 8:52pm: Danny Knobler clarifies: it’s a seven-year extension worth around $140MM, starting with the 2009 season. Regardless, it’s a team-friendly deal.
12:18am: According to ESPN’s Enquire Rojas, Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera is set to sign an eight-year, $153.3MM extension. That’s $19.16MM per year for 2009-16. Definitely less than I expected him to sign for. We’ll examine the deal more closely when details become available.
By Tim Dierkes | at
John Lowe of the Detroit Free Press informs us that the Tigers’ talks with third baseman Miguel Cabrera about a long-term deal are ongoing. Signing the superstar is the team’s top priority.
The popular opinion is that Cabrera will get something in the neighborhood of ten years and $200MM. He’s contracted for ’08 at $11.3MM and then has one more arbitration year before free agent eligibility. I could be wrong, but I don’t know of any athlete other than A-Rod who broke the $200MM barrier.
By Cork Gaines | at
Here are a few links to whet your appetite, including a Brian Roberts sighting. You didn’t think we could go two days without a Robert update, did you?
Cork Gaines writes for Rays Index and can be reached here.
By Tim Dierkes | at
SI.com’s Jon Heyman reports that the Tigers and Miguel Cabrera’s agent have "begun to talk" about a long-term deal. Heyman believes a deal could be hammered out fairly quickly given the nice fit with Detroit for Cabrera. Heyman doesn’t have inside info on the years or amount, but got Cabrera to admit that ten years, $200MM sounded about right.
Would an extension start with 2009, Cabrera’s last arbitration year? I imagine so, though maybe the ten years would start with 2010. Regardless, Cabrera’s level of production is truly worth $20MM annually into the forseeable future. Doesn’t hurt that he’s gotten into shape a bit, either.
By Tim Dierkes | at
ESPN’s Keith Law has some good info up on his personal blog. I have always wondered about this stuff. In the post, Law discusses how little sense it makes for the Phillies to pay Ryan Howard more than his service time calls for. But also in the comments Law explains which players Howard’s agent can compare him to for an arbitration hearing.
Law says:
For comparison purposes, a player may be compared to players in the same “service class” in the current year or in prior years, and third- and fourth-time eligibles may be compared to free agents who have signed in the current year or in prior years. Single-year salaries are more powerful comparisons than multi-year deals, since the individual salaries within a multi-year deal may be skewed due to bonuses, backloading, or other factors.
Law notes that Howard’s comp could be Miguel Cabrera, who made $7.4MM last year. Howard logically deserves more than that based on a stat comparison, making the Phillies’ $7MM submission seem low.
By Tim Dierkes | at
Miguel Cabrera agreed on a salary around what was expected with the Tigers – $11.3MM for 2008. I recently talked to the Detroit Free Press’s Jon Paul Morosi about the long-term possibilities, if you’re interested.
Danny Knobler says this was Cabrera’s agents’ preference – get the one-year deal done with today’s deadline and then work on a something long-term.
By Tim Dierkes | at
Jon Paul Morosi of the Detroit Free Press snags our Rumor Royalty honor for the Tigers. Here’s a link to the paper’s Tigers page and one to Morosi’s blog. Many thanks to Jon for participating. Click here and scroll to read all Rumor Royalty entries.
MLBTR: We’ve heard chatter that Miguel Cabrera could be baseball’s next $200 million player. Is there any chance this could happen with the Tigers? Seems that it would require an 8-10 year commitment.
Morosi: This much is clear: The Tigers love Cabrera and will do what they can to sign him long-term. (He’s two seasons away from free agency now.) I’m confident that they would make him a six-year offer for a little more than $100 million. But there’s a big gap between those figures and a 10-year deal in the $200 million range. There is little doubt that his free agency years will be valued at more than $20 million each; he has better career offensive numbers than Torii Hunter, whose contract with the Angels averages $18 million per year.
MLBTR: The Tigers have become major spenders in recent years. Do you expect them to make a play for any of the big name free agent starters next winter, such as C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Ben Sheets, or Oliver Perez?
Morosi: I don’t anticipate them being major players in the market for big-money starters next off-season. Then again, I didn’t think they were going to trade for Dontrelle Willis when I arrived at the winter meetings last month. Right now, they have four starters — Willis, Justin Verlander, Jeremy Bonderman and Nate Robertson — who are under club control through at least 2009. That’s pretty good depth. And Kenny Rogers could borrow a page from Jamie Moyer — who is two years his senior — and pitch longer than anyone expects.
On the other hand, the Tigers might need to look for a starter next winter if Rogers leaves/retires and one of the other four is injured or traded.
MLBTR: Will we see Brandon Inge and/or Marcus Thames in the Detroit organization on Opening Day? Which one is more likely to be traded?
Morosi: Inge is the more likely of the two to be traded, but I wouldn’t be surprised if both are still with the team on Opening Day. A quiet development here has been Vance Wilson’s uncertain health after missing all of last season with an elbow injury that ultimately required Tommy John surgery. Jim Leyland said during the Tigers’ caravan over the weekend that he’s concerned about whether Wilson will be ready for the start of the season. Inge, who preceded Pudge Rodriguez as the starting catcher, could provide some insurance there. (Last year’s backup, Mike Rabelo, went to Florida in the Cabrera/Willis deal.)
The Tigers are still trying to trade Inge — Leyland said as much over the weekend — but it doesn’t seem that there’s a big market for him as a starting third baseman. And the Rolen-Glaus trade meant two more teams solved their third base questions, reducing the number of potential suitors for Inge. So, he may have no choice but to accept a bench role.
Detroit has been open to trading Thames at various times, but he’s still a very valuable player for this team. He has 44 home runs over the past two seasons in roughly the same number of at-bats (617) that some everday players get in a single season. He’s continued working out at first base this winter, and he could get some part-time at-bats there, in the outfield, and at designated hitter on Gary Sheffield’s days off.
By Tim Dierkes | at
Jon Paul Morosi of the Detroit Free Press has an article up today in which he tosses around some numbers regarding a possible Miguel Cabrera contract extension. Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski admitted his desire to sign Cabrera long-term recently.
Morosi expects Cabrera to receive an $11MM contract for ’08, if he doesn’t sign long-term soon. Morosi calculates that if Cabrera signed right now, six years and $105MM might be a reasonable amount. That would be $11MM for ’08, $14MM for ’09, and $20MM per year thereafter.
By the way, I’m happy to report that Morosi has agreed to answer some questions for our Rumor Royalty series. Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments.
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