An Answer to the Non-Tender Question
Bill Smith, Assistant GM with the Twins, answered my question about Luis Rodriguez in an e-mail tonight. Here's what he had to say:
So, there you have it - there was indeed a benefit to operating this way, in order to circumvent the pay requirements. I appreciate Bill taking the time to answer this question - it certainly was a helpful response!
Baseball rules limit the amount that you can cut a player from one year to the next. Because Luis Rodriguez spent the entire season in the Major Leagues, we would have had to pay him $200,000 if he gets sent to the minor leagues in 2007. We spoke with the agent in advance, and negotiated an agreement for less money IF he goes to the minor leagues, but with a fair raise at the major league level. This is very common, and we have done it numerous times in the past.
So, there you have it - there was indeed a benefit to operating this way, in order to circumvent the pay requirements. I appreciate Bill taking the time to answer this question - it certainly was a helpful response!
posted by JST @ Wednesday, December 13, 2006
3 Comments:
At Sat Dec 16, 06:21:00 AM ,
Anonymous said...
Joshua, I was puzzled by your comment on Seth's site about J.D. Durbin. Being able to "outright" a player one time to the minors without going through the waiver process didn't seem to make any sense to me. So I contacted my source with the Twins and asked him what the situation was with Durbin. Yes, J.D. is out of options. It is true that a team can "outright" a player to the minors one time, however, the purpose of this deals with that player not becomming a free agent. After the first time, outrighting a player enables them to become a free agent and not report to the minor league team. I asked point blank about Durbin, and was told that if the Twins do not keep him in spring, he will have to clear waivers before he could be sent back to Rochester. As to my source, I have never used his name on any of these blogs, however, you can check with Seth as he is aware of who it is.
At Sat Dec 16, 09:10:00 AM ,
JST said...
Roger,
No need to reveal your source. A look back at the place where I got my information on outrighting, plus a quick dig around some transaction primers, showed that I was giving the outright process more power than it has.
I'm not sure where the idea came to me that you could outright a player and ignore the waiver process, but I've believed it was the case since the Twins outrighted Mike Smith from the roster. Thank you for correcting me - I don't mind embarrassing myself with my posts (it's impossible to know everything about the transactions), but I like to be corrected in a polite way like this rather than being mocked and scorned for my foolishness (even if that's what's deserved!).
At Sun Dec 17, 07:17:00 AM ,
Anonymous said...
Some of these things are so complicated, there are times that I think the big league execs feel confused. The really interesting part of my conversation dealt with what is happening in the Appy League. As of today there will be 9 teams, however, they are meeting regularly to find a solution to solve the obvious problems. You wouldn't believe some of the actual solutions they are looking at.
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