AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2005 > November > 21
Monday, November 21, 2005
Others talk, Chipper walks walk
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A few scattershot Braves (and other) opinions, observations and predictions on this chilly, rainy and generally dreary Monday, a day that makes me think “pitchers and catchers report” sounds warm and inviting — before the zoysia grass in my yard has even turned completely brown. Ugh.
First things first: Much as a lot of anxious folks would like to see the Rafael Furcal matter resolved soon, it appears the Braves’ free-agent shortstop might not get signed before the winter meetings Dec. 5-8 in Dallas. His agent has been a straight shooter, so I believe him when he tells me he doesn’t expect any real bidding to happen until after Thanksgiving. Agent Paul Kinzer pretty much shut things down last week while checking in with Furcal, Wilson Betemit and other clients during a one-week trip through the D.R. and Puerto Rico. And now with Thanksgiving shortening this week, he doesn’t t expect anything to pop at least until after the holiday, and probably not for a couple of weeks.
Now, a matter that could have profound impact on Furcal and the Braves’ chances of keeping him: Chipper Jones. Say what you will about the veteran third baseman, but those who would let their dislike of Jones or skepticism (understandable and usually warranted) of the idea of athletes’ taking less money to help the team … those who’d let any of that color their view of last week’s gesture by Jones to restructure his contract, you need to be willing to look at the details and stop trying to interpret the facts.
The man did what few, if any, big-ticket athletes have done recently — instead of lip service, he actually did take what will likely amount to about $15 million less over the next three years. And even if the added option year for 2009 vests, he’d make $8 mill to $11 mill that year for a maximum of $48 million over the next four years.
With his two $15 mill options for 2007 and 2008 turned into $11 mill guaranteed years, and next year’s salary dropped from $17 mill to $11 mill, plus a $4 mill signing bonus in January, Chipper is guaranteed $37 million for his work over the next three seasons. Contrast that to the $52 mill he probably — likely — would have made under his contract before the restructuring — $17 mill next year, then two vesting option years at $15 mill apiece, with a $5 mill bonus at the end if both option years vested.
And those options years would’ve vested with a mere 450 plate appearances the previous year — not 450 AT-BATS, as some readers have stated, but 450 plate appearances (walks, sac flies, etc, PLUS at-bats). He had more than 550 plate appearances every year before last year, when he almost got 450 despite being hurt for about six weeks. And he’s had closer to 700 plate appearances than 500 in every other season.
Anyway, fact is, he stepped up because he knows the team can’t fill all its needs, or would have a hard time doing it, without some additional funds. Not when Chipper would have sucked up 21 percent of the entire payroll next seaeson. Now they have some extra cash, and it’s up to the very capable John Schuerholz/Frank Wren tandem to spend it wisely, whether that means re-signing Furcal or getting another stopgap shortstop and a leadoff hitter, but also landing a proven closer. I don’t know how realistic Trevor Hoffman is, but I do think they were serious when they called his reps (but there’s no way Braves are going to pay $25.5 mill for three yaars, which is what his agent asked the Padres after the Padres’ low-balled him with a two-year, $10 mill offer).
Anyway, whether it’s Hoffman or re-signing Farnsworth (that just feels dangerous, doesn’t it?) or going hard after lefty B.J. Ryan, I don’t know. Too hard to tell with Schuerholz, because remember, absolutely no one had Dan Kolb on the radar or in the rumor mill last year until the deal was actually done. No team — NO TEAM — keeps this stuff closer to the vest than the Braves, much as some kind readers forget that sometimes when they wonder why we don’t have as many Braves rumors as the constant regurgitation of names coming out of the Mets and other teams that have leaks — intentional and otherwise — throughout their organizations and a half-dozen papers competing for stories, regardless of how much validity there is to some of those stories.
Anyway, back to Chipper. Why hasn’t it been announced, you might be asking? Did I jump the gun?
No. As I said in my AJC story Friday when I wrote about Chipper’s restructured contract: He still has to pass a physical. With the holiday this week, that might not happen until next week. But that doesn’t change the story. If for some reason doctors find that his foot or something else is too much a concern for an insurance company to cover the two added, guaranteed years on his contract, then the restructuring falls apart and he reverts to the old deal, most likely. But I and my editors — much as the Braves wouldn’t preferred the story not be published until the team announced it — believed that the simple fact that Jones agreed to this restructuring is a story in and of itself. And if he fails a physical (I don’t think he will) that’d be a story, too.
Give the man props, whether you like him or not. Show me another athlete who’s done something similar, and don’t point to all those Arizona D-backs players or others who’ve simply deferred money, many times with interest. Chipper didn’t do that, folks. It’s not deferred. It might have the effect of being deferred, some of it at least, with the additional option year. But he’ll have to have 450 plate appearances the previous year, or average 450 over a few years, for that option to vest, which means he’ll have to still be an every-day lineup player for the option to vest in the fourth year, and will have to be plenty productive for it to vest at higher than $8 mill.
Anyway, he would’ve almost certainly made $52 mill over the next three years before, and he can’t make that now even if he plays four more years under the restructured deal.
I’m not leading the Chipper chorus, either. So don’t bother accusing me of it. That’s tired, that accusation. I’m just pointing to facts, rather than letting personal feelings color my interpretation of the gesture.
OK, couple other things:
Someone in the blog last week — before it was shut down in large part because of those wanna-be comedians who apparently aren’t able to make folks laugh at the office or bar or wherever and have to try here — asked or accused Braves of “letting” Scott Eyre get away to the Cubs. What? Are you serious? You wanted the Braves to give him more than the three years and $11 million the Cubs gave him? Have you checked his stats? That’s practically closer money for a 33-year-old non-closer who’s had one really good year and has a career 4.52 ERA. Braves were one of four finalists, but that money’s crazy, in my opinion, for Eyre.
Another thing: The Marlins — what do you folks think of their pending fire sale? Surprised?
I’m not, having covered the team for seven years before I came to Atlanta four years ago. South Florida just isn’t much of a baseball market. They’ve got a great core audience, but it’s a niche ticket-buying audience, the kind you might see for hockey in a non-traditional hockey market. Not the kind that can support a baseball team for 81 home dates in a bad stadium. Which brings up the other unfortunate part of the South Florida baseball equation — they’re never going to get a stadium built. Period.
Why? Because they were third in line with the cup out, and even before the hurricane damage of the past two seasons — the windstorms, not the “Seventh Floor Crew” kind — politicians and voters slapped that cup away after paying for two — count ‘em — state-of-the-art arenas 15 miles or so apart for the Heat in downtown Miami and NHL Panthers in suburban Broward. Too bad those teams’ owners couldn’t see eye-to-eye and do the responsible thing of sharing an arena. Then there’s former Marlins owner Wayne Huizenga, who basically runs Broward County and has quashed, or had his lobbyists quash, every effort by the Marlins to get a stadium built there, be it through car-rental taxes or whatever (he was also a car-rental giant, or still is, I lose track of the holdings in his kingdom).
Anyway, the Marlins have won two World Series since Atlanta won its only one. Anybody in Braves Nation want to trade place with those Marlins fans?
OK, that’s it. I’ve rambled forever, once again. I think they’re only giving you guys 24 hours to respond to these beat blogs now, unless that policy has already changed again since last week’s was shut down. Anyway, let the booger stories begin (please, I’m joking. only one of those from the obsessive individuals who simply can’t let go of that period of their adolescence).
Oh, before I go: Anyone happen to go see Gov’t Mule this weekend? (If you don’t know who they are, just skip to the next graph). I couldn’t get U2 tix and went to see the Mule at Tabernacle on Saturday. And I have to say, when they brought out Gregg Allman for four or five songs in the second set, I felt a whole lot better about missing U2. It was incredible, especially Allman and Warren Haynes wailing on keyboard and guitar on a stunning “Statesboro Blues.” That’s music.
That’s it. I’m out. Pull for those Jayhawks tonight against Arizona in Maui. The ‘Hawks are awful young, but by December will be a force. Rock Chalk.
