You're right, I'm wrong. He's going to end up with a contract that has an opt out after 1 year and he will be kicking himself for turning down that 4/80, when he is a year older and getting even worse offers next year.

Gary

I wonder how this played out time wise. The Jays make the 4/80 offer and EE declines. There must have been mixed feelings within the organization. This was, after all, more years than the Jays really wanted to commit to. And, EE has back issues (that nobody is discussing because last year was a good year for EE with respect to injuries).

What would be nice to know is if the Jays went back to EE's agent just before the Morales deal and said It is now or never. If EE wants to play here we need to know now or else we are going to be acting quickly (24 hours) to address our gaps.

I am not sure how negotiations go, but it would be nice to know if that happened, or whether the Jays pulled the offer off the table once they had an agreement in principle with Morales, and in considering the market developments, were only too happy to get the 4/80 off the table.

Pretty clear that they offered EE 4/80, he said no ty, and they moved on and signed Morales. With 2 more-or-less pure DH's, I'm not sure how anything else is possible tbh.

hopefully the Orioles lose out on Trumbo and sign EE.

TBE, I am pretty sure everyone knows all those parts. That wasn't what I was asking, though. I was pondering if they gave EE's agent a heads-up that the deal was coming off the table, or if they just pulled it??

A heads-up would signal we still want you at the terms we offered but have to move on like right now. The other says have a nice life, we just signed someone else.

From what I gather it looks like EE was hoping there would have been some counter-offer from the Jays, or some reaching out after he rejected the 4/80, so I am assuming EE and/or his agent miscalculated how the Jays would play this and when EE said no the game was over as far as the Jays were concerned.

Or, perhaps a better question for you, Gary or any Jays fans here: EE would certainly like an undo button so he could say yes to the 4/80. Do you think the way the market stands now the Jays would like an undo on Morales so they could sign EE at the original 4/80?

theres no undo buttons in baseball

Why the hell would a 34 year old DH reject 4/80 in the first place? What am I missing here?

Because he's likely going to get more than that (and is likely worth more than that). He's been worth about 4 WAR each of the last 4 seasons, even assuming decent decline, he's probably going to be worth at least 8-10 WAR over the next four years. I think going price of a WAR is about $10 million right now, so that's $80-$100 million. Add in all it takes is one team to overpay to about $120 million (or give him more years).

Compared to Morales, I'd much rather have EE at 4/80 than Morales at 3/33. Same age and Morales has been worth about 1-1.5 WAR a season over the last 5 (and that is ignoring his -1.8 WAR in 2014). Much rather go an extra $9 million per season and an extra year to get a far superior player.

Justin Turner looks like he's going to be the best FA signing by far. He's not sexy at all, but he's been worth >3 WAR each of the last three years, and has improved each of those years. Add in that he's only 32 years, and I don't see any way he doesn't outperform that contract by a good bit.

I find him damn sexy

I concede that you could be correct about all of that. Who needs a DH?

Texas Boston Baltimore

Luckily for EE all 3 are contenders and have incentive to pay for him

Dollars to donuts, he doesn't get better than 4/80 and Trumbo gets a better deal than EE.

Ones that come to mind are Red Sox (don't think Moreland is a full-time answer), Orioles, Rangers (could move Gallo to 1B), A's, and Indians. Also White Sox, but don't think they are going to spend any money this offseason.

It's not a huge market, but there also aren't many good options out there. After EE you've got just Trumbo and Bautista as available DH's likely to be worth more than 1 WAR next year (and Bautista could get signed to play OF as well). I could see EE getting squeezed if a bunch of teams decide to go with cheap options, but I think we'll see one of the team decide to pay full price for EE.

I'd guess any deal that isn't a 20 AAV (which is possible) comes with an optout. No chance he signs a true 4 year deal under 80

Also trumbo isn't getting more than him (unless EE signs an optout deal)

Sox brass has already said they don't want to go over the luxury tax next season so unless EE takes a lot less money, Sox aren't signing him.

According to radio just now, cbssports is reporting edwin to texas. no idea on terms. curious to see what the price is if true.

Edit: I haven't seen anything else pop up on it, so I'm now skeptical. Apologies.

I feel we're heard that before only for the team to blow by the tax (definitely recall Yankees claiming that a few years ago before going on a spending spree).

Would be foolish for Sox to trade away top prospects for Sale and Thornburg, but then allow the luxury tax to force them to roll without a solid DH.

I'd bet on EE getting the better deal if you want to put a hundred on it.

Going price for a WAR higher than going price of a war.

Predictions on where Ryan Howard ends up and what deal he gets?

Subway and $5 footlong cold cut trio.

Watching an MLB Network thing on the 2000 season. How ****ing nuts is it that the POS Clemens wasn't punished at all for throwing that broken bat at Piazza.

I'm DVRing it as I have a hardon for that season.


52235 is Durham, Valentin, Thomas. 978 runs that Sox team scored. And then fizzled in 3 games in the playoffs, sigh. Frank Thomas hit .328 with 43 bombs and 143 RBIs, didn't make the All Star team.


Edit: that whole Piazza and Clemens situation is unbelievable.

That musta been a big hurt