Balta1701

Dude that's not what that says, that's the Phillies saying too rich for my blood. That's not Lozano leaving money on the table, that's the Phillies and White Sox saying they will not go to $300 million.

Both plausible versions I've seen have a $250 million base that swell-opts to $350, and a $250 million base that has 2 vesting options that a team could maneuver its way to avoid but which could total $320. $300 million guaranteed with an opt out after 5 years is WAY better than either of those for the player. The guarantee is higher for if the player does get hurt, and if the player is an all-star after year 5 and the market has been fixed by a new CBA, they take the opt-out and wind up with much higher career earnings than either of those formats.

Hell, the White Sox wouldn't even match. They were clearly not guaranteeing more than $250 million based on any version of these contracts we've seen. They weren't close.

And a better general manager, Preller, convinced his organization to do it, even though their salary sheet is no where near as clean as the White Sox's. So the defense for Rick Hahn is that the organization trusts him so little that the Padres stepped in and did their job. Great defense of him! "The org just doesn't trust Rick Hahn" is the defense.

Because a number of other teams put themselves in positions where they couldn't bid. The Red Sox still have $30 million on their payroll this year for Rusney Castillo and Pablo Sandoval, a $300 million deal costs them an extra $20 million in luxury tax payments this year and costs them draft picks. The Yankees are right on the edge of where this contract could cost them draft picks, and they have a 3b option. The Dodgers have Justin Turner and Corey Seager. The market is still depressed as a whole. Literally everything worked out the way the White Sox would have wanted for them to get this done.

As general manager, it is absolutely Rick Hahn's job to identify targets and make things palatable to ownership. How did people talk ownership into deals like Melky Cabrera when they were already at their supposed payroll limit? Rick Hahn blew $40 million on crap this offseason and maybe made the team a game or two better in the process, and that's not counting offering Abreu arbitration. If ownership wouldn't go beyond $250, then it is Rick Hahn's job to sit down and say "Here's the plan" and if ownership gives him difficulty he responds "ok then I will free up an extra $15 million here by playing Davidson at 1b and letting Abreu walk, I'll sign Shields instead of Nova, I'll run with a cheaper closer, there's your $50 million right there". Ownership mighta been jerks, but this is directly at Rick Hahn's doorstep, #1.

Jay, Nova, Herrera, Colome, McCann, Alonso. They already spent $40 million on that crap.

Sale was still a college pitcher who they could rush up to the big leagues.

What other options? Aside from Harper, are we going to be a ton better if we had signed Pollock and Keuchel? Where else are they going to spend that money? We were after Machado because even though this team isn't ready to compete, getting a Hall of Fame caliber player when they are 26 and locking them up for 5 years is a good move even if we're 1 year away. Grabbing guys who are 29, 30 - you better have a team ready to go. Adding them to this 62 win roster would be worse than just standing pat.

No, because they weren't going to pay market rate so it didn't matter.

Mid-April.

They're clowns.

This is simply not true.

That's the "Swell-opt" setup which is less favorable to the player than a player option. It sounds like a big number but it's the org being cheap and trying to disguise it behind a big number.

They're going to draft Vaughn and try to have him up in 2020.

That is literally almost exactly what Robinson Cano got 5 years ago at age 31. A new CBA, 5 more years of revenue inflation - unless the FA market remains broken he should get more than that if he's been an all star for 5 straight seasons.

It's not just the players union. a "Swell opt" structure up to $350 is a worse deal for the player than a straight opt-out after 5 years. The guarantee being higher is better for the player, the straight player option after 5 years is better for the player.

The opt out after 5 years is much better for the player than any other performance based options. If he's made 5 straight all star teams and hustling like crazy, the best thing he can do is have an opt-out. That option is him betting on himself.

If he stays with an organization of this quality? Right now their standard lineup is probably Alonso at DH, Palka in RF, and Jay in CF.

Basically make no further moves, let everyone develop for another year, try to move Alonso ASAP.

See my discussion of the "Swell-opt" structure on previous pages. If the white sox did the structure that we were talking about for the last month - a 5 year opt out, like Manny got, is much more "betting on himself" than the swell/opt performance bonuses. He can beat that by counting his next deal with the opt out.

Trout is already talking about it.

Honestly, the report so far is that the Rockies are close but don't want to go past 7 years, which made sense if the FA market had truly collapsed and the weak offers that the White Sox were running out for Machado were true. Now that Machado has gotten 10, it makes sense for the Rockies to do 8 years.

From all the talk of a "Swell-opt" deal, the incentives they are talking about are likely this structure: At some point the White Sox have an option to "Swell" the deal. This would have added both years (up to 10 years) and extra money, bringing it up to 10/$350. If the White Sox pass on their option to swell the deal, then it becomes a player option and the player can opt out at some point. It's not as much incentives then, it's that the White Sox get a team option on him first. If he's performing well enough to be worth a 10/$350 deal, the White Sox can opt in to that deal. The problem is - it's a team option. If he's not performing well enough, or the FA market continues collapsing, then his guarantee of only $250 is what he gets. A swell-opt could bring him up to $350 million - but no more. If he's a top performer or the market recovers, a player option is preferred because he has a shot to get more than $350 million total that way. So it's probably not that he had to earn an MVP, instead it's probably that there was a team swell option in there, but a team swell option is not as good as a raw player option.