Marlins offers Aroldis Chapman a contract

by craig on Dec 21, 2009 2:04 PM EST in News Comment 2 comments

The Florida Marlins have reportedly made an offer to Aroldis Chapman.

We hear the Marlins have made a five-year offer, in the $13 million range, for ballyhooed left-handed pitcher Aroldis Chapman, a Cuban defector who has been clocked as high as 102 mph. South Florida could be appealing to him, but a few bigger-revenue teams figure to dangle more -- including Boston, which reportedly offered $15.5 million in a multiyear deal. Chapman, 21, impressed scouts in the World Baseball Classic and during a Tuesday workout in Houston.

Let me get this right, the Marlins have offered a 5-year deal for $13 million to counter the Red Sox's offer of 3-years for $15.5 million. I'm no genius in the ways of baseball negotiations but that seems like a very weak offer to me. One, the Red Sox offer is for more money. Two, being in their organization means he will get a higher level of coverage by the baseball press, instead of being in near obscurity to all but the baseball insiders. I don't get it.

The other thing about the offer is that the Marlins are offering a pitcher a five-year contract. A pitcher who has never thrown a pitch in the majors and is expected to start the season in the minors. Kinda blows a hole in their argument that they can't give Josh Johnson a four-year contract because pitchers are too big of an injury risk. In the case of JJ, it is all about the money. Really nothing new there, but they should drop the lie about it being the number of years that is the problem.

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Aroldis Chapman

When you factor in state (and city for NYC) taxes, the Marlins deal is competitive.

Clearly Aroldis Chapman is a risk but if he is successful he will prove to be a financial boon to the Marlins by drawing in fans. In Boston or NY he would not draw in a single additional fan. So the potential financial reward is much greater for the Marlins than for almost all other teams. This IMO justifies taking this moderate risk on a starting pitcher with a good chance of being a a star.

A successful Aroldis Chapman here would be a folk hero. In Boston or NY he would be just another guy on the field. It would make sense for him to take the Marlins offer which after taxes is very close to the Boston offer. Here is a much more relaxed place to play baseball and for some (including Josh Johnson) that is a big plus. And this is certainly a Cuban friendly town as opposed to NY or Boston.

Plus the money for five years is less what it would cost for two years of Josh Johnson. A long term contract for Josh Johnson would itself be a huge risk as Josh Johnson has never shown himself to have the durability for an entire season. In fact he totally petered out in September and the Marlins are very well aware of that.I think that observing Josh Johnson one more year would be prudent on the Marlins part to make sure that Josh Johnson can really hold up to the rigors of starting pitching for an entire year.

Incidentally I have noticed that Josh Johnson’s agent has been striking a much more conciliatory tone than before so we may still get a deal done. Imagine it’s 2010 and we’re in the stadium and we have the best starting pitching in baseball with 20 game winners Josh Johnson and Aroldis Chapman ……….

Mr Craig I congratulate you on all your hard work here but I think you seem to have prejudice against the Marlins management. IMO they are both competent and hard working and have done an outstanding job. They have maneuvered us into beautiful new stadium and laid the foundation for competitive teams for years to come. Maybe you could give both the positive and the negative spin to your stories instead of always being so hostile.

Don’t forget that the Marlins indeed had good to excellent teams in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008 and 2009. In fact in 2009 we were the fifth best team in the National League.

Compare our management to the Mets and you will see how good it is.

by jrhana on Dec 21, 2009 3:28 PM EST reply actions 0 recs