Grandal One Year Deal Is Very Troubling

Yesterday, Yasmani Grandal accepted a one year deal from the Milwaukee Brewers for one year $18.25 million. He accepted that deal at a time when it appeared few if any teams were interested in him, which is odd considering how many teams needed catching help.

The Braves, who had approximately $54 million come off the payroll, opted to sign Brian McCann and Josh Donaldson for $25 million. Despite a low payroll and a tightening NL East, they opted for a backup catcher than Grandal.

The Angels, who are trying to find a way to win before Mike Trout possibly departs via free agency, opted for Jonathan Lucroy on a one year $3.35 million deal.

The Athletics made a surprising run last year and had Lucroy as a pending free agent. They needed to fortify a few positions, including catcher, and they opted for Chris Herrmann to a one year $1 million deal.

The Astros, who are trying to build a team to overtake a Red Sox team who needed just five games to beat them in the ALCS, opted for Robinson Chirinos on a one year $5.75 million deal.

The White Sox are contemplating building a team who can make a run in a weak AL Central signed James McCann to a one year $2.5 million deal.

Last year, the Phillies were nervous about Jorge Alfaro‘s ability to take home a team in a pennant race. Accordingly, they traded for Wilson Ramos despite his being on the DL. They haven’t pursued any free agent catchers.

The Nationals, who have to find a way to reclaim the NL East and do it potentially with Bryce Harper, opted to go with the 35 year old Kurt Suzuki. To be fair, they did sign Patrick Corbin to a $140 million deal.

The Nationals also opted to obtain Yan Gomes from the Indians. This left the Indians looking for a catcher, so they obtained Kevin Plawecki from the Mets, and they settled his arbitration case for $1.3 million.

Plawecki was available because they signed Ramos for two years $19 million, and the team opted to pair the injury prone catcher with the more injury prone Travis d’Arnaud.

Supposedly, the Mets shifted to Ramos after Grandal rejected a four year $60 million deal. The problem there is that didn’t happen.

Jon Heyman of Fancred reported the Mets offered less than $60 million, and Ken Rosenthal of The Atlantic reported the Mets didn’t offer it. Instead, they just discussed parameters for a deal. It’s much like what happened with Jose Reyes in 201- before he signed with the Marlins.

We can all debate how real the Mets offer was, and how prudent their course of action was. Fact is, the Mets obtained a starting catching option while the rest of baseball have dabbled in part-time, backup, and frankly over the hill catchers.

To a team, they passed on offering Ramos a significant enough multi-year deal, and if they did, they didn’t make one sufficient enough to prevent Grandal from accepting a one year deal.

This is despite the aforementioned teams needing a catcher. The Red Sox, Rays, Athletics, Angels, Dodgers, and Rockies also need a starting catcher. Keep in mind, that’s just a list of probable contenders. There’s a bigger list of teams needing a catcher and those who want to be contenders.

All of these teams passed on a catcher who is probably the best catcher in baseball. He’s that because he is consistently one of the best pitch framers in the game while being top three in wRC+ among catchers since 2016.

These teams could argue they want J.T. Realmuto, who some believe is the best catcher in baseball. Problem is the Marlins asking price has been unrealistically high and only one team can get him. Far more teams than one need a catcher.

Yet, somehow, Grandal gets a one year deal. For that matter, Ramos gets a two year deal.

Somehow, the Mets, Braves, Nationals, Angels, Athletics, Astros, and White Sox independently determined none of the free agents available merited more than a two year deal, and the other 23 MLB teams thought nothing of letting this happen.

This is happening at a time when Forbes is reporting Major League Baseball has record revenues of $10.3 billion.

Simultaneously, there has been a tepid market for Harper and Manny Machado. These are two 26 year old superstars who have been in the top 15 in fWAR since they broke into the majors while combing for 10 All-Star appearances, two Gold Gloves, four top 10 MVP finishes, and a Silver Slugger.

This is what collusion looks like, and this is the type of thing which will force the players hand prior to the expiration of the CBA in 2021.

Sure, teams will claim they’re smarter now, and they’ve seen how you can’t win by just spending money while ignoring the World Series features the two highest payrolls in baseball. Snark aside, maybe teams are smarter.

It just seems odd they’re all collectively smart enough where they agree catchers shouldn’t get more than a two year deal and two of the best players in the sport wouldn’t put their team over the top.

33 Replies to “Grandal One Year Deal Is Very Troubling”

  1. Met Bet says:

    The problem is not that aging players are not being paid handsomely. Teams have wisened up to the fact that deals for 30+ players often are not worth it, especially catchers. The real problem is that the young superstars are being screwed out of their fair share by the current system. The problem is that the players negotiating are not interested in giving them a fair shake.

    1. metsdaddy says:

      The teams have gotten wiser goes out the door when the vast majority of teams have zero interest in Machado and Harper.

  2. Pat says:

    MLB: Rule 21
    “MISCONDUCT
    (a) MISCONDUCT IN PLAYING BASEBALL.
    Any player or person connected with a Club who shall promise
    or agree to lose, or
    to attempt to lose, or to fail to give his best efforts towards the winning of any
    baseball game with which he is or may be in any way concerned, or who shall intentionally lose or
    attempt to lose, or intentionally fail to give his best efforts towards th
    e winning of any such baseball
    game, or who shall solicit or attempt to induce any player or person connected with a Club to lose or
    attempt to lose, or to fail to give his best efforts towards the winning of any baseball game with which
    such other player
    or person is or may be in any way concerned,…”

    The rule is very clear, anyone who is tied to an organization, including the owners: must do everything they can to win every baseball game: Refusing to pay for top talent when they have the money generated from fans is clearly not doing the best they can to win every game; Tanking is Illegal. Besides, I think every team has Public financing of their stadium. They promised those stadiums would be so they could buy players to build winning teams. Go look at the record, none of them said those publicly finance stadiums was to increase their profit or net worth. None of them would. They have duped the public and baseball fans in general while violating their own rules. Collusion and Fraud are very evident.

    1. metsdaddy says:

      Tanking is not illegal at the organizational level. If it was, there’d be no deadline deals because they’d all be deemed impermissible.

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