G-Snarls

He just needs more time!

https://www.inspiredtaste.net/19516/mimosa-recipe/

Some good sounding tidbits in those tweets Speaks well of the organization. You never heard stuff like that during the Beeston years. Just sayin'

LOL. How much soda do professional athletes really drink...

The Payamps era is over It is funny that he's right back with Boston

I find this topic very interesting. No doubt it will affect the next CBA. - MLBTR, Steve Adams What does Trevor Bauer have in common with Taijuan Walker, Hirokazu Sawamura, Darren O’Day and (just before you blurt out “he’s a right-handed pitcher, Steve, this is stupid”), Kevin Pillar and Brett Gardner? Yes, all six are Major League Baseball players. And all six signed free-agent contracts this winter. But the more interesting answer is that all six are recent examples of big-market clubs leveraging typically player-friendly contractual clauses to work in their advantage. I’m talking about player options -- a clause we haven’t seen all that often in recent years. Or at least, a clause we haven’t seen in its most traditional form and called by its most traditional name. Player options, however, are staples in major free-agent contract negotiation. They’ve simply been rebranded, for lack of a better term as “opt-out clauses” and shifted to an even more player-friendly form that typically grants top-tier players the ability to turn down multiple years rather than just one. Bauer’s three-year, $102MM contract is really just a one-year, $40MM contract with a pair of player options attached to the end of the deal. That multi-year opt-out structure has become more normal recently, but we’ve also seen several more traditional player options for a single year issued in the 2020-21 offseason. There’s a common thread among the teams handing them out, too; Gardner, O’Day, Sawamura, Pillar and Walker all play for major-market teams that are generally averse to crossing the luxury-tax threshold. The Mets were certainly willing to do so for the right player (i.e. Bauer), but their recent contracts with Pillar and Walker suggest that they’re hoping to remain south of that number even as they continue shopping. Here’s what I mean. While we’ve broadly come to accept player options as player-friendly clauses, that’s really only true if the player option is valued at a price the player is likely to pick up. Walker’s deal, for instance, carries a $6MM player option with a $3MM buyout. It’s possible that his arm injuries resurface and he ultimately picks up that net $3MM for the 2023 season, but so long as he’s remotely healthy, it’s hard to imagine him picking up that net $3MM salary rather than again testing the market. So why include it in the contract at all, then? Because player options are considered guaranteed money for luxury-tax purposes. And because they’re guaranteed money, they impact the average annual value of a contract. While most will reference Walker’s contract as a two-year, $20MM deal with a player option, it’s actually a three-year, $23MM contract as far as the luxury tax is concerned. Were that option a club option, the contract would come with a $10MM luxury-tax hit; Walker is owed $10MM in 2021, $7MM in 2022 and at least the $3MM buyout of that option for 2023 -- hence the $10MM annual value and luxury-tax hit. As it’s currently structured, however, Walker is technically guaranteed the full freight of that $6MM in 2023, even if he’s highly unlikely to exercise it. The luxury-tax hit drops to $7.666MM for the Mets, and Walker still gets his $20MM over two years even if/when he inevitably opts out. It’s a similar story with O’Day and the Yankees. It’s commonly referenced as a one-year, $2.45MM deal with a player option, but O’Day almost certainly won’t be picking up a $1.4MM player option when it comes with a $700K buyout (again, barring injury). But the presence of that option adds $1.4MM in guaranteed money to O’Day’s $1.75MM salary in 2021, making the annual value/luxury hit $1.575MM rather than the $2.45MM it would be if his contract instead included a club option. We don’t know particulars on Gardner’s deal yet, but expect a similar setup. Pillar’s contract is referenced as a one-year, $5MM contract with a player option despite it really being a two-year, $6.5MM deal that allows him to opt out after year one. He’s promised $3.6MM in 2021 and can take a $2.9MM player option without a buyout for 2022. If he declines, the Mets then possess a $6.4MM club option and $1.4MM buyout. It’s a complex structure, but its purpose is effectively to game the luxury-tax system. Pillar will earn either $5MM, $6.5MM or $10MM on the contract, but its luxury hit for the current season is just $3.25MM. It’s borderline absurd to see the Yankees tinkering to save a few hundred thousand in luxury commitments or the Red Sox constructing an immensely complex deal to push Sawamura’s AAV from $1.5MM to $1MM, but both clubs are within $3-4MM of the luxury barrier. The MLBPA’s failure to further drive up the luxury tax in the previous round of collective bargaining talks has resulted in the game’s wealthiest teams playing the type of accounting tricks we might expect to see from front offices whose ownership groups give them one-third the financial latitude of the Yankees, Red Sox, Mets and Dodgers. It should be noted, of course, that the Dodgers’ situation is at least a bit different. Ownership had no problem skyrocketing past the tax threshold in order to sign Bauer. The structuring of his contract was largely a mechanism designed to lessen the extent of the luxury damages rather than to avoid them entirely. By paying him $40MM+ in the contract’s first two years and then adding a third year at $17MM, they effectively paid him two-year money on a three-year term. Barring a major injury or collapse, Bauer will opt out at the first (or perhaps more likely) second chance he gets, guaranteeing him either $40MM (with an opt-out next winter) or $85MM (with an opt out post-2022). But rather than actually being on the hook for a $40-42.5MM annual value that would’ve come with tax hits north of 75 percent, the Dodgers are “only” on the hook for a $34MM annual value. If all of this -- and Tim’s luxury tax post on the site last week -- make your head spin, it probably should. It’s a needlessly complicated system that could’ve been avoided, or at least had its impact lessened, with better negotiating during the previous wave of CBA talks. With the current agreement expiring post-2021, it’s possible this is the last year we’ll see the luxury tax in this form. Hopefully that’s the case, but it’s sure to be one of the most fiercely contested issues.

And adding top tier starting pitching

Tatis Jr contract details. It's super back loaded. $1MM in 2021, $5MM in 2022, $7MM in 2023, $11MM in 2024, $20MM in 2025 and 2026, $25MM in 2027 and 2028 $36MM yearly from 2029 through 2034

The Nationals have reached an agreement with right-hander Jeremy Jeffress on a minor league deal, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reports (Twitter links). Jeffress will earn $1.25MM if he reaches the Nats’ big league roster, plus he can earn up to $1.25MM more in bonuses.

Realistically, this is probably as svelte as Vlad ever gets and that's fine. His lower half in particular is always going to be thick. Still a huge improvement compared to last year

His injury history probably limits him in years signed vs what Story and Lindor will get

I also wonder if Semien sort of expects to remain a third baseman at this point rather than competing with all those guys next year (some of whom are much better defenders at short)

So many shortstops next year... (Story, Correa, Lindor, Baez, Semien, Simmons, Seager) Do we get one of them or no? Does Bo stick at SS forever? Those guys can't all get massive contracts can they? There just aren't enough teams with the money and the need... Seems like supply/demand could help the Jays get one at a semi-reasonable price if they want)

I see in that video he's proven he can hit major league underhand short distance soft toss

2021 Springer Training has officially begun!!

Ian Desmond is opting out. Again.

Shane Bieber has it too

Semien was even worse. They wanted him to defer almost all his money and for way longer than this. Edit: Yeah for *10 YEARS* https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/01/28/the-as-bizarre-offer-to-marcus-semien-speaks-volumes-about-the-teams-direction/

Can't wait to watch Yates

Too late now!

Wait what?! The A's can afford an 11M closer???

They traded him to the Yankees last tine... Our turn! Lol

They're really egging people on too LOL

Sign one of those two or trade for one of Hendricks/Price and we're ready to rock

Heck yeah OK I'm bummed about that