Yes. I’m going to keep ignoring trade rumors. There’s only so much I can write about players who aren’t on our team, considering all the interesting aspects of those who are.
Take, for instance, one Fausto Carmona. In early 2008, the Indians and Fausto agreed to what could only have been considered an immensely team-friendly contract extension. Coming off a season that saw him finish third in the AL Cy Young voting (behind teammate C.C. Sabathia), Fausto agreed to terms on a deal that would pay him on the following schedule:
| YEAR | SALARY ($ million) |
|
2008 |
0.50 |
|
2009 |
2.75 |
|
2010 |
4.90 |
|
2011 |
6.10 |
|
2012* |
7.00 |
|
2013* |
9.00 |
|
2014* |
12.00 |
The reason the deal was so team-friendly has to do with those asterisks; those indicate a “club option” year, meaning that the Indians could choose to pay Fausto that amount or let him go. Well, sorta. We’ll get there. First, some background.
Someone asked me on twitter the other night whether I thought the Indians would pick up Fausto’s option for 2012, considering his struggles over the last several years. My immediate gut instinct was that they would. After all, $7 million isn’t a ton of money for a starting pitcher who has never had injury concerns and has some history of success. If you had to handicap his next season, you’d probably given him a non-zero chance that he could be an above average starter who could give you 200 innings. All the tools seem to be there, and for a guy like that, you typically pay more than $7 million.
Just to drive home the point, last off-season, the Blue Jays gave John Buck—he of the career .301 OBP and .241 average—$6 million per year for thee years. Aubrey Huff signed with the Giants for $11 million per year for two years, despite having an in-house replacement in Brandon Belt ready to roll. Bobby Jenks signed with the Red Sox for $12 million over two years to be a right-handed set up man.
In other words, $7 million dollars on what amounts to a one-year deal for a durable starting pitcher with some—albeit slight—upside is a pretty easy option to exercise.
But there’s something else going on here that I didn’t notice until recently. Fausto Carmona will not have accrued six years of MLB service time by the time this season is over, which means he will not be eligible for free agency even if the Indians decline his $7 million option.
What does this mean? I’m no expert on the MLB roster rules, but I’m pretty sure that the Indians could decline the option and still go to arbitration with Fausto, retaining his services but opting out of the contract. This would be a fairly rare circumstance from what I gather, but it could save the Indians some bucks in 2012 that they could use elsewhere on sprucing up the roster.
Would the front office roll the dice on a move like this? I don’t know. I think they only do it if they’re fairly certain that they can get Fausto for considerably less than the $7 million in his option clause. I also would assume that declining his 2012 option would nullify his other options, even if he were to stay on the team. I can’t say whether this is the smart move or not; there just aren’t sufficient precedents for this sort of thing.
But you can bet the front office is considering it. For a team that has to operate so close to the margins, decisions like these can be the difference between having cash on-hand to acquire players at the deadline or not. Will be interesting to watch play out.
OK. Get back to your twitter feeds. I hear Josh Willingham is doing something. Somewhere.
