Justin Upton Signs 6-year, $132.75MM Deal with Tigers

[Laika]

Definitely not the way you'd want to spend your remaining budget (or blow past it) for this team. Makes more sense for DET since they're upgrading from an unplatooned Maybin or Gose.

 

This will look interesting in 2018 though:

 

Cabrera - 34 years old - 30M

Verlander - 34 - 28M

Zimm - 31 - 24M

Upton - 30 - ~22M (avg of 132 over 6)

V-Mart - 39 - 18M

Fielder - 6M

 

Club options (probably picked up?)

 

Kinsler - 35 - 10M

Sanchez - 33 - 16M

 

That's 154M for 7 guys over 30 (or 128M for 5 if options are declined), with no extension for JD Martinez. That's gonna get ugly in a hurry.

 

They are, of course, stuck with Verlander, Cabrera, and V.Mart for better or worse.

 

Upton should be tradeable for the majority of his deal.

Zimmerman might also be if he can stay healthy.

 

Kinsler and Sanchez are off the books soon enough, so not a big long term deal. Same can sort of be said for Martinez, it's just semi-short term sunk owner money.

 

They'll really have to be proactive and bail the boat aggressively once it starts to sink. This will mean getting whatever they can in exchange for whichever of those contracts they can move. I too would tie myself to Miguel Cabrera for life, but the Verlander contract really sucks.

[highhard2]

Great deal for the Tigers. If I was Shapiro I would have been begging Rogers to get some extra money for this year to sign this guy. Would make it soooo much easier to let JB and EE go next year and obviously improves our LF situation immensely.

 

A core of Donaldson, Upton, and Tulo would have been fine. Our offense would have been epic for 1 year with Upton.

 

LF- Upton

3B- Donaldson

RF- Bautista

DH- Encarnacion

SS- Tulowitzki

1B- Smoak/Cola

C - Martin

2B- Travis (Goins)

CF- Pillar

 

That would have been amazing.

 

I'd actually prefer Cespedes. He hits righties better than lefties,plays better defence,can back up CF,slots perfectly into the 5 hole,and might come with a shorter term.

 

Tulo

Bautista

Donalson

EE

Cespedes

Travis

Martin

Smoak

Pillar

 

Lethal.

[burlingtonbandit]

Must be nice to have an owner that spends that kind of money. Meanwhile the blue jays have a payroll lower than the Seattle Mariners.

[Orgfiller]

Must be nice to have an owner that spends that kind of money. Meanwhile the blue jays have a payroll lower than the Seattle Mariners.

 

Why is this at all relevant? The Mariners paid big for Cano, and everyone is regretting that. I'm sure glad that the Jays don't have an albatross like that in the books.

 

Also, you're OTC in BORED. Clear your PM's.

Edited January 19, 2016 by Orgfiller

[Spanky99]

Must be nice to have an owner that spends that kind of money. Meanwhile the blue jays have a payroll lower than the Seattle Mariners.

 

You're up in the draft.

[Captain Adama]

I guess 'great' is subjective and in retrospect, a wRC+ of 123 was 38th best in baseball last year (for qualified hitter), which isn't too shabby. That said - Logan Forsyth, Lucas Duda, and Kendrys Morales all finished with a higher wRC+ and I don't consider any of them to be 'great' hitters. I guess suggesting he's a "23% above average hitter" would be most accurate. Regardless - not something I'd lock up long term and make a core player, especially when you consider he's playing a below average LF.

 

Why are you trying to make a point that compares the wRC of Upton's last 4 years against last year's wRC of Forsythe, Duda and Morales? Despite the point youre making that's just misleading.

[burlingtonbandit]

Why is this at all relevant? The Mariners paid big for Cano, and everyone is regretting that. I'm sure glad that the Jays don't have an albatross like that in the books.

 

Also, you're OTC in BORED. Clear your PM's.

 

Not much just venting at Rogers lol. Starting to look like the blue jays might have a below average payroll to start the season though which certainly isn't ideal for where the Franchise is on the win curve.

[Brownie19]

Why are you trying to make a point that compares the wRC of Upton's last 4 years against last year's wRC of Forsythe, Duda and Morales? Despite the point youre making that's just misleading.

 

You mean I can't cherry pick stats to prove my point? WTF is this world coming to???

 

 

OK if I must, Upton's 4 year wRC+ average puts him 38th in baseball over that 4 year stretch.......amongst those listed ahead of him - Jaso, Belt, Duda & B.Moss. I don't consider any of them to be great hitters - nor do I consider Upton to be a great hitter. If I'm locking up a guy for 6 years and committing 10-15% of my annual budget to him and he's a guy who strikes out a ton and brings little defensively to the table - he better at least be a great hitter.