Cavalier Quick Hitters
March 31, 2010Ilgauskas Expects Continued Improvement
March 31, 2010
With outfielder Shin-Soo Choo approaching his arbitration year and the Cleveland Indians being able to avoid said situation like the plague, the team has reached out to Choo’s representation as they look to sign the player to a long-term deal. And as of right now, these talks are reportedly going nowhere.
The 27-year old Choo is coming off of a stellar 2009 season where he hit .300/.394/.489 with 20 home runs and 21 stolen bases in 156 games. While these numbers would be a bargain at almost any salary, Choo played last year for an incredibly low salary of $420,300.
In his latest SABR-related piece, Jon Steiner pointed out that Choo’s 2009 numbers – translated into WAR figures – were worth closer to $23 million. Understandably, Choo went out and latched himself to one of baseball’s biggest player representatives in Scott Boras. Alas, the two sides are now at a standstill.
Despite his current issues with the South Korean military, the Indians are reportedly looking to lock Choo up for at least five more seasons. Naturally, the terms of the deal were not disclosed and could be a large reason why Borans and Choo are not interested in discussing contracts at this time.
As TD penned during the Choo-Boras marriage, this is bound to be an interesting year behind the scenes.
“The problem is that if Choo continues down the same improving path, he will become too pricey for the Dolan blood in these arbitration years,” TD said. “Therefore, he could be the next one shipped out for prospects.”
In 2005, the Indians gave a rich contract extension to designated hitter Travis Hafner. In 2006, Grady Sizemore was given a six-year deal. And in 2007, it was Jake Westbrook’s turn to get a new contract of his own. These three moves were all apart of what was supposed to be another annual run at the AL pennant. Since these moves, the team has opted to be on the other side of the ledger, dealing CC Sabathia, Cliff Lee, Victor Martinez, Casey Blake, and Ryan Garko for prospects.
Choo’s teammate Asdrubal Cabrera will also be heading into an arbitration season, and is also a player that made the veteran minimum. Based on 2009 WAR figures, Cabrera was worth nearly $14 million last season. With current general manager Mark Shapiro giving way to Chris Antonetti at year end, it is looking to be a baptism by fire when it comes to locking up two core players that are inherently vital to the rebuilding process. Assuming that the front office is fully committed to one…
—
Choo negotiations at an impasse[Anthony Castrovince]
19 Comments
What a surprise…just what the Indians needed…something else I don’t envision ending well.
A-rod and Manny are the only 2 who were paid $23 million last year. The 25th highest made $14.5 million.
Forgive me if I’m wrong since I don’t pay attention to this sport anymore. These are not 2 of the top 25 players in baseball, so obviously this scale is horribly inaccurate.
Would the Yankees even give Choo a 5 year $125million contract? That seems very unlikely.
Pay da Man!
i’ll just say it and save the time… It was nice while it lasted Choo.
@ Swig:
Since Scott quoted some of my numbers from last week, I should be clear. No, I don’t think the Yankees would pay Choo $125 million for a five year contract. That’s not what $/WAR means. At all.
First, no one projects Choo to continue the pace he set last year(or get better, making him worth $25 million in your example). All projections have him worth less than the 5 wins he generated last season (even the FANS projection, which are eternally optimistic).
Second, Choo’s not a free agent. If all players were free agents, free agents would be paid less. So it’s sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy to say that the Yankees wouldn’t give him that money. They legally can’t give him that money. Think of it this way: if you wanted to buy a player on the free agent market who would be expected to make your team win 5 more games than they would without him, expect to pay about $23 million for him. What it DOESN’T mean is that all players who generate 5 wins typically make $23 million.
The fact that the Yankees CAN’T give Choo any money, means that the players that can (free agents) get paid more. Supply and Demand.
It’s sort of fine point, but an important one.
More on this in tomorrow’s SABR-Toothed Triber.
Asking for money from the Indians ? Scott Boras can’t be that dumb.
Why doesn’t he just request a trade ?
This is why it’s really hard to care about the Indians nowadays.
All the Indians are trying to do is lock him up now for as long as they can before he generates more stats that way they don’t have to worry about losing him. Boras no matter how much he’s helped ruin baseball with the contracts is smart enough to realize that Choo can make more money in the long run by playing out his current deal. This means the only alternative Cleveland will have is to probably trade Choo because we all know they won’t be able to afford him. Welcome to the revolving door known as the Cleveland Indians.
I don’t need more stats to tell me this tired old story.
@Jon, thanks for the explanation. I did briefly look over that post before I commented. Interesting metric, I’ll have to mentally chew on it for a bit.
I love how most of you direct your anger towards the “cheap” Indians ownership in this case? What about the horrendously flawed system that allows snakes like Boras to prosper?
@Turk you have a point about the system but it’s bigger then Boras. I think Boras is more like a leech then a snake. I don’t have anger towards the Indians for being cheap the issue I have is their refusal to admit they are cheap. I’m guessing if everything was level the Indians would still be cheap.
And on that note I will go watch classic Indians games from the 90s on STO.
@ Turk
Spot on. Thank you.
Growing up going to St. Bridget’s in Parma, I was taught not to hate. There are a few exceptions: Hitler, Bin laden —- and Boras.
Honestly, if the Indians can absorb a loss at any position, isn’t it in the OF? It’s not the end of the world if they end up trading him.
@boogey — That’s exactly my point, though. They *aren’t* cheap, they’re just trying to be as savvy as they can about the money they spend. They’ve actually spent quite a bit on big name guys (Hafner, Westbrook, Wood) that have all been injured. That just further proves how risky it is for a small market team to spend big.
@16 No I’m saying they are cheap or at least they make terrible decisions when it comes to who they decide to pay. Branyan is the latest example. I won’t begrudge Hafner and Westbrook because they got hurt after the fact but the signing of Wood totally backfired. I don’t know if Kerry was worth that money and unfortunately he hardly got a chance to earn his pay last season.
It’s hard to tell what exactly Boras wants, but the Indians typically sign their young “core” players to long term deals. After that the Indians are in the same situation as 20 other teams (or close to it). I would never give a pitcher (even if it was C.C.) 161 Million for 7 years. The Indians have a lot of money coming off the books with Westbrook, Peralta and Wood not returning next season. So, I would expect, at least, Cabrera to get signed long term. Choo and his agent probably want the moon, so who knows. In the end, I don’t blame the Indians for being a bit more cautious with the check book. (EX: Hafner, Carmona and Westbrook)
I don’t understand how people can blame the Indians for not signing big deals when there are three examples above (Westy, Hafner and Sizemore) that are currently killing this team. We’ve tried big deals – they killed our team – why do we want more of them?
Also – after the 07 season when it looked like we had a good core, the Dolans increased payroll 20% and I believe had the 16th highest payroll in baseball (this coming after a year in which they had the best record in MLB and only had the 22nd best attendance).
Until the cable network revenue is taken away from teams, we won’t be able to sign anyone long-term (nor should we).