On the face of it, this should be the time of year when contract extensions are executed.
The less-pressurized spring training setting usually allows for productive talks between players, their representatives and their teams.
But this spring, talks have mostly stalled. Jose Altuve’s monster five-year $151 million was, of course, a huge exception. But for now, it seems to exist in something of a vacuum.
In the past, the Red Sox have used spring training to hash out some extensions. David Ortiz got one done in the spring, and so, too, did Clay Buchholz – among others.
One major league executive attributed the lack of deals this time to the unease going on with the Players Association, which seems more intent on getting to the bottom of the poor free agent market this past winter – to say nothing of highlighting the number of teams “tanking’’ – than green-lighting any new mega-deals.
“There’s a real sense of mistrust coming from that side,’’ said the executive.
The Red Sox, according to an industry source, have continued to keep the lines of communication open between the club and the agents for outfielder Mookie Betts. Betts was approached with a multi-year, nine-figure offer a year ago at this time, but that was rejected.
The Sox have identified Betts as the current member of their core they would most like to lock up long-term, but there seems little appetite from Betts’s camp for any such deal. Betts seems more than content to go year-to-year in arbitration – he won a $10.5 million judgement last month. That’s his right, of course, and while he passes up the security of a long-term deal, he stands to make more money taking this tact.
The Sox have two significant free agents after the 2018 – starter Drew Pomeranz and closer Craig Kimbrel, but neither has been approached this spring.
With Pomeranz, the Sox may be understandably wary of the forearm issue which keeps cropping up. Pomeranz has yet to miss any significant time with the condition, but its very existence is bound to make the team think twice before committing to a multi-year extension.
Moreover, the Red Sox have to be wary of allocating too much money to their rotation. David Price is already one of highest-paid starters in the game, with an average annual salary of $31 million. Rick Porcello has two years left at $20 million, and if the Sox were to undertake an effort to extend Chris Sale – who is eligible for free agency after 2019 – they would need to go into the negotiations with the knowledge that the bidding would start at $30 million annually.
Even with their resources, that would require the Red Sox to pay in excess of $80 million for three starters.
“You can’t keep everyone,’’ said an MLB executive.
As for Kimbrel, he has been mostly absent from camp as he tends to his infant daughter, Lydia, who has undergone two heart surgeries in the last few months. Surely, Kimbrel is no frame of mind to contemplate his baseball future with so much else occupying his time and attention.
Even if Kimbrel weren’t distracted, there’s the additional issue of debating whether it’s advisable to spend the kind of money on him that an elite closer now commands. Following recent multi-year deals signed by Aroldis Chapman (following the 2016 season) and Wade Davis (who signed this past winter), the guideline for top-of-the-market closers is now three- and four-year deals worth at least $15 milluon annually.
Is that sort of financial investment wise for someone who has logged the number of high-leverage appearances that Kimbrel has, and is about to turn 30 in two months? Moreover, even as the market has been set, there remains a segment of the baseball world distinctly uncomfortable with paying that kind of money in return for 75 or so innings per year.
Finally, the Red Sox can use the 2018 season to determine whether they have a viable, more affordable alternative to Kimbrel for 2019 and beyond. Could Carson Smith handle the closing duties? Or Tyler Thornburg?
Add all the factors up – a poisoned relationship between teams and agents; looming expiring deals for more significant stars; and some extenuating circumstances with their own free agents-to-be – and it’s not a big surprise that the Red Sox don’t appear open for business as usual this spring.
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