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Extra BasesGrading The Deal: Napoli, Red Sox Finalize Revised Contract
By Andrew Perna Almost two months after agreeing to a three-year, $39 million contract with Mike Napoli, the Red Sox finalized a revised deal with the slugger last week. The Red Sox didn't want to make a long-term commitment to Napoli after a December physical revealed a serious hip condition known as avascular necrosis. The condition restricts blood flow to the hip joints and can lead to the bone collapsing. Napoli says he hasn't experienced any symptoms from AVN, which shouldn't keep him from serving as Boston's first baseman in 2013. Napoli's new one-year contract has a base value of $5 million. If he is able to stay healthy and off the disabled list, he can earn an additional $8 million to bring the deal's value up to the $13 million value he would have received under the original agreement. After his physical, the Red Sox stepped away from the agreement and explored other options. They considered Adam LaRoche, while Napoli's agent looked at signing with the Rangers or Orioles. This is the latest in a long line of mistakes/bad luck for the Red Sox. They reached twin three-year, $39 million deals with Napoli and Shane Victorino in early December, only to see the better of those two additions come into question because of a bizarre hip condition. I gave the initial Napoli agreement a B-, against a C- for the Victorino deal, because of his ability to play at first base, designated hitter and catcher as well as history of success at Fenway Park. He was initially looking for a four-year deal, agreed to a three-year pact and now has to settle for a one-year contract. His long-term security and career stability faded quickly, while the Red Sox were able to add to their offense without more than a one-year commitment. Grade for Napoli: C- How the offseason has unfolded is largely unfortunate for Napoli, who was a physical away from signing a contract worth eight times as much guaranteed money as the deal he ended up with. Nevertheless, his grade for the revised deal shouldn't be as high as it was for the $39 million pact. When the Red Sox first agreed to terms with Napoli, there was a lot of talk about how well he has hit in Boston. As a member of the Angels and Rangers, he has 73 career plate appearances at Fenway. He has hit .306/.397/.710 with seven home runs and 17 RBI. His OPS of 1.107 is outstanding, but comes in just 19 games. His batting average on balls in play at Fenway is .353, which will regress to the mean as he will play 81 games there in 2013. Napoli has been inconsistent throughout his seven-year career. He hit .247 with the Angels in 2007, then higher than .270 in 2008 and '09. He dropped to .238 in his final season with Los Angeles (2010) and then surged to .320 with his first 30-home run season in 2011 with the Rangers. Last year, his average dropped nearly 100 points down to .227 with 125 strikeouts in just 108 games. Grade for Red Sox: A While the Red Sox wanted to sign Napoli to a three-year, $39 million deal, based on his talent and the financial hit alone this revised contract is a home run (pun intended). If Napoli struggles to remain on the field -- he has dealt with injuries not related to this hip condition in the past -- the Red Sox will owe him just $5 million. If he hits plate appearance benchmarks and remains active, Boston will gladly pay him $13 million to add power to their lineup over the short term.
Boston Red Sox, Free Agent Rumor, Injury, Terms Agreement Discuss Send Feedback Buy Tickets Grading The Deal: Dodgers Give Greinke 'Circumstantial' $147M Deal
By Andrew Perna It's not often that you can sum up a $147 million contract with one word, but in the case of the six-year deal that Zack Greinke reached with the Dodgers on Saturday night you can do just that. To put it simply, the contract is circumstantial. Before we get into why I choose that word, let's dive into the details. Once Greinke finalizes the deal by undergoing a physical, he will be the owner of the second-highest contract ever issued to a pitcher (CC Sabathia, $161 million in 2009). It is the largest pact ever for a right-hander. Los Angeles has been on a spending spree as of late, adding Hanley Ramirez, Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford via trade, and now signing Greinke away from the Rangers and Angels. Greinke began the 2012 season with the Brewers, who opted to trade him to the Angels at midseason with free agency on the horizon. The move turned out to be a good one for Milwaukee and a bad one for the Angels, who sent a package to the Brewers that yielded a third-place finish in the American League West and just 13 starts. The Dodgers, meanwhile, will make baseball history when they take the field for Opening Day 2013. With the signing of Greinke, they are already projected to have a payroll of more than $200 million. No National League team has ever surpassed that mark and it seems unlikely that they'll avoid the plateau. Greinke wasn't a household name until this offseason, but is a very good pitcher with an elite history. He won the AL Cy Young award as a member of the Royals in 2009 when he posted a 2.16 ERA, 1.07 WHIP and 242 strikeouts in 33 starts. He is among the most durable pitchers in baseball, averaging about 207 innings per season since 2008. Things got dicey in 2010, his final season in Kansas City, when he went 10-14 with a 4.17 ERA and averaged 7.4 strikeouts per nine innings. He allowed almost exactly a hit per inning, while hitting a career-high seven batters. Greinke made 34 starts in 2012 and was above average for both the Brewers and Angels. He posted a 3.48 ERA, his lowest since 2009, and struck out 200 batters for the third time in four seasons. He also had great command, striking out 3.7 batters per walk. He's averaged at least three times as many strikeouts as walks in each of the last six seasons. As you might expect, Greinke's best numbers came during his Cy Young season. He had an eye-popping 10.1 WAR in 2009 (first in the AL), well above the rate you would want from even an MVP-caliber player, but hasn't even reached half of that total in a single season since. In fact, if you combine his WAR numbers from the last three years you get 7.9. You can take that one of two ways. He was either so dominant in 2009 that he will forever struggle to match that level of effectiveness, or he was so "average" his last 95 starts that he hasn't contributed even close to as much as he did over those 33 magical appearances four years ago. You would fully expect the 2009 version of Greinke to land this type of historic contract, but he hasn't been the best pitcher in baseball – or really close to it – recently. His career ERA (3.77) is good for just 23rd among active pitchers and his WHIP (1.247) has him ranked 20th. Greinke does strike batters out at an elite rate. Only fourteen current pitchers average more strikeouts per nine innings (8.035) and he'll team with Clayton Kershaw to form quite the tandem. Kershaw won the 2011 National League Cy Young and finished second in the 2012 voting. The Dodgers have two of the best pitchers in baseball, but Greinke is far from the better of the two. Meanwhile, Kershaw enters the 2013 season with just a year and $11,000,000 left on his contract. It seems like a logical progression that Kershaw will soon receive a new deal from the Dodgers, but as of late last month it was reported that talks between the two sides hadn't yet begun. Kershaw is a left-hander and has a more extensive history of success, so it's easy to see him receiving a contract even larger than the one Greinke has landed. How can one Major League team afford to pay $50 million-plus annually for just two pitchers? That takes us back to the circumstantial label I placed on Greinke's contract. There are three circumstances that led to Greinke agreeing to a six-year, $147 million deal with the Dodgers.
The outcome is obvious, but in the interest of full disclosure I will issue the standard letter grade to both sides of this deal, otherwise it wouldn't be a 'Grading the Deal.' Grade for Greinke: A The Greinke family is set for life because Zack won a Cy Young in 2009, pitched well in 2011 and 2012, the Dodgers are flush with cash and he was the biggest prize of the offseason. The only demerit on his grade is the lack of a no-trade clause, which was reported in the hours following news of the agreement. With a clause, he would have controlled his baseball life for the next six years while cashing humongous checks. Without one, he'll have to cash those checks with the possibility of a trade in the back of his mind. Before you scoff at the notion of someone taking on his salary in the coming years, remember the deal this same team consummated with the Red Sox in August. Grade for Dodgers: C- There isn't much to say, because any argument against the Dodgers giving Greinke $147 million will be met with a shrug and 'They can afford it,' but that's not the point. They are in the business of winning baseball games and World Series titles, not compiling the most expensive lineup the National League (and maybe eventually the game) has ever seen. Greinke makes them better and boosts their already strong chances of a playoff run in 2013, but will be vastly overpaid from now to 2018. Mark my words: this will become an albatross of a contract perhaps second only to the pact Alex Rodriguez is currently playing under in New York. Look at the numbers. Greinke has been outright dominant once in his career. He pitched in quiet Kansas City while doing so, won a Cy Young and has been a solid No. 2 starter since. Contracts have increased in value at an alarming rate as the years have progressed, but the ones in the neighborhood of this one (Sabathia's $161 million and the $144 million deal Cole Hamels signed with the Phillies in July) go to a different kind of pitcher. Sabathia is a No. 1 in every sense of the word; finishing games when his team needs him to, starting on short rest to carry middling clubs to the playoffs and doing so while throwing the ball with his left hand. Hamels won an NLCS and World Series MVP in 2008, when he was just 24, and his career ERA is almost half a run better than that of Greinke. But again, what can you say? If the Dodgers win the World Series next fall, or even in 2014, and Greinke plays a significant role in getting them there, the goal will be accomplished and the salary will gladly be paid. We might characterize Greinke as overpaid, but is it technically overpaying if you can afford it?
Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Texas Rangers, Free Agent Rumor, Terms Agreement Discuss Send Feedback Buy Tickets Grading The Deal: Red Sox Open Winter Meetings By Adding Napoli
By Andrew Perna Armed with cash made available by the August trade of Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez and Josh Beckett to the Dodgers, the Red Sox struck first as this week’s winter meetings opened in Nashville. Shipping Gonzalez to Los Angeles meant there was a hole at first base, a void that Ben Cherington choose to fill by signing Mike Napoli to a three-year, $39 million contract. The Rangers will not receive a compensation pick for losing Napoli because they decided against issuing him a qualifying offer at the end of the season. He was considered one of the top hitters on the free agent market. Napoli was looking for a four-year deal, but the Red Sox got him to sign on the dotted line by increasing his annual salary. They had signed Gonzalez to a seven-year, $154 million contract, which the Dodgers are now responsible for, at an average rate of $22 million per season. Napoli comes $9 million cheaper and appears to fit better into the team’s culture. Of course, Napoli isn’t nearly as good defensively, he also will spend some time at catcher, and is coming off a down season -- .227/.343/.469. It really isn’t fair to compare Napoli to Gonzalez, who is a much better all-around player, but the fact of the matter is that in a series of moves Cherington has essentially replaced Gonzalez with Napoli for much less money (and fewer years) with the understanding that he isn’t likely to contribute at the same level. Those enamored with the signing will point to Napoli’s numbers at Fenway Park and gush about the possibility of a few MVP votes and a bargain contract, but the sample size is much too small to label Napoli as the team’s next great run producer. In 73 career plate appearances at Fenway Park, Napoli has hit .306/.397/.710 with seven home runs and 17 RBI. His OPS of 1.107 is outstanding, but it comes in just 19 games. His batting average on balls in play at Fenway in his career is .353, which will regress to the mean as he will play 81 games there in 2013 alone. Realistically, Napoli will produce more like he did in 2008 and 2009 with the Angels than he did in either of his two seasons with the Rangers. While he hit a trough last season, he rode the wave to a peak in 2011 when he hit .320/.414/.631 with a career-high 30 home runs and 75 RBI. Grade for Napoli: A- His family name sounds like it should adorn a very good Italian restaurant in North End, but it won’t mean much when he grounds into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded. The honeymoon won’t last long if he doesn’t produce. Just ask any of the many big-name additions that have been shipped out of Boston in the last few years. The reality is that Napoli has had one above-average season since he debuted in 2006. He produced at an All-Star level in terms of Wins Above Replacement (5+) just once, in 2011, when he contributed 5.3 WAR for the Rangers. In two of his four full seasons, he has produced at a level below that of a starter (less than 2). Not surprisingly, he has not posted a positive dWAR since 2006, while his oWAR numbers are very good. He’s unquestionably a starter-level hitter, but his defense is often bad enough to negate his production at the plate. Napoli would have fit better as a designated hitter, but Boston re-signed David Ortiz to a two-year, $26 million in November. If Ortiz retires at the conclusion of his latest deal, Napoli could fill the DH role in 2015. I do believe that we will see him more behind the plate than Cherington will admit to as the season approaches. There is also a small possibility that John Farrell could try Napoli in the outfield as well. Jacoby Ellsbury and the newly-acquired Shane Victorino have spots locked down, but I’m not sold on Jonny Gomes in the least. Grade for Red Sox: B- Napoli may be 31, but this deal does have a bit more upside than downside. Even if he doesn’t hit for a nice average, he’ll still draw walks and hit balls out of the park. If his average improves, the Red Sox will be content to pay him his $13 million and watch him produce at an All-Star level offensively. He’ll always be a liability defensively, but teams have looked the other way in that regard before.
Boston Red Sox, Texas Rangers, Signing, Terms Agreement Discuss Send Feedback Buy Tickets Complete List Of 2013 MLB Free AgentsThe Giants have put a cap on the 2012 season, meaning Major League Baseball will shift to free agency. Here is a complete list of all free agents, including those with player, team or mutual options for next year. Grading The Deal: Pirates Get Burnett At Discount PriceThe Pirates added a serviceable veteran pitcher with a World Series ring for a reasonable price. Grading The Deal: Nationals Go Short-Term With Edwin JacksonMike Rizzo continues to change the culture of the Nationals and this time he did not have to give an aging outfielder $126 million over seven years to make that statement. Grading The Deal: Tigers Take Huge Risk On Prince FielderWhile this signing was a case of opportunity, handing out this type of contract for Prince Fielder may prove to be a mistake down the line. Grading The Deal: Rangers, Darvish Beat DeadlineYu Darvish comes to the MLB younger, with three fewer professional seasons, better numbers and a stronger physical presence than Daisuke Matsuzaka. Grading The Deal: Marlins Sign Jose ReyesThe signing of Jose Reyes ushers in a new era for the Marlins, who paid just $7 million to their highest-paid player (Javier Vazquez) last year. |