We’ve gotten our fair share of bad news lately, so thanks to prompting from reader Mark Bruso, here’s some good news, and a quick primer on 40 man roster rules.
The injuries to Soriano and Guardado will open up a pair of 40-man roster spots for the M’s to use if they choose to place them on the 60 day disabled list. This has the added benefit of allowing the M’s to give two kids they may not have called up looks in September, since there won’t be need to designate someone for assignment to get them on the 40 man roster. Possibilities for those spots would include guys like A.J. Zapp, Greg Jacobs, and Randy Williams. Without the open 40-man spots, all three would be longshots to get a cup of coffee in September. It still may not happen, but the chance is at least there now.
As a service to our more casual readers who may not care about every insane roster rule Major League Baseball has, here’s a quick overview of how the rosters and disabled lists work.
Anyone under a “major league contract” is assigned to the 40 man roster. In order to be on the 25 man roster, you must have a major league contract, so the everyday team is 60 percent of the 40 man roster. Players on the 15-day disabled list count against the 40 man roster, but not the 25 man roster. Currently, Guardado, Pineiro, Soriano, and Mateo are on the 15 day DL, so they are part of the 40 man roster but not the 25 man roster. The 11 minor leaguers who fill out the 40 man roster are Blackley, Baek, Borders, R. Johnson, Looper, Taylor, Dobbs, Santiago, Ugueto, Reed, and Strong. Chris Snelling and Jeff Heaverlo are listed on the Mariners 40-man, but the best info I have puts them on the 60-day disabled list. Considering the official site’s 40-man roster contains 42 players, I think my info is correct.
There is no downside to putting Soriano or Guardado on the 60-day DL this year. The M’s have an interesting decision regarding Soriano next year, if they believe he’ll be out for the entire season. Because he still has an option remaining, the team could decide to option him to Tacoma and place him on the minor league disabled list rather than putting him on the 60-day DL. This would cause them to essentially use a 39-man roster next year (and burn one of Soriano’s options), but it would also save them a year of service time, pushing his free agency and arbitration clocks back. Players accrue service time while on the 60-day DL, so it’s a trade off of whether the option and available roster spot is more important than keeping Soriano’s service time down. The M’s have historically played it both ways, depending on the individual player, so it will be interesting to see what they do with Rafael next year.
I was all set to upload the long-overdue Big Board, but it appears we’re having an FTP issue with Blogger. Grr. But hey, if you’ve waited this long, what’s another day, right? Seriously, thanks to everyone for your patience… or not, if you haven’t been patient (though you should have been).
Rett Johnson started for Inland Empire tonight. In his 2004 season debut, he worked one inning, allowed one hit, walked one, threw one wild pitch and fanned one.
Also, as a note, I know people are simply stating that the Mariners can decline Guardado’s option and let him become a free agent. This isn’t true, unfortunately. His contract is rather unique, but the essence is that he was guaranteed $13 million over 3 years unless he chose to opt-out. The Star Tribune had the breakdown last winter.
2004: $1.5 million signing bonus, $2.5 million in base pay.
2005: Team option at $6 million. If declined, player option for $4.5 million.
2006: Team option at $7 million. If declined, player option at $4.5 million
There are incentives in the deal that made him more money this year since he inherited the closer role as well. Obviously, the M’s will decline their option, and then Guardado will exercise his, keeping him under contract to the M’s next year for $4.5 million. Odds are he’ll be picking up his own option for 2006 as well, as he won’t have enough time to prove that he’s worth more than $4.5 million on the open market after next season.
The M’s guaranteed Guardado a lot of money and it blew up in their face. This signing was Bill Bavasi’s pride and joy, the only defendable move you can make from last offseason. And its now a giant lemon that’s going to suck $9 million out of the budget the next two years and give us minimal return on that investment.
Just in case the season wasn’t bad enough, here’s a giant freaking nail in the coffin.
Rafael Soriano is likely going to have Tommy John surgery on his elbow and is out for 12-18 months. He probably won’t see a big league mound again until spring training of 2006.
But wait, there’s more.
Eddie Guardado has a torn rotator cuff that will require surgery and is expected to keep him out for 8-12 months. That would put his return somewhere in the middle of next year. And yes, I’m fairly certain he’ll be exercising his option to return next year.
At this point, I’d say the M’s might want to reconsider my proposal that they can contend next year. This is just about as bad of news as the team could get right now.
Cha Seung Baek’s tenure in the majors didn’t last long. Hiram Bocachica has been recalled and Baek sent back to Tacoma. This move gives the M’s a 4th outfielder and Tacoma another badly needed arm. Since Baek’s stay with the big club was less than 20 days, this will not count as an option year for him.
Check out the batting order Cleveland used today, along with each hitter’s 2004 OBP…
RF Lawton (.361)
SS Vizquel (.364)
DH Hafner (.413)
C Martinez (.368)
3B Blake (.362)
1B Broussard (.381)
2B Belliard (.370)
CF Sizemore (.400)
LF Crisp (.316)
Sigh.
ESPN is wrong. Edgar will retire at the end of the year. Hooray.
ESPN is reporting that the retirement is effective immediately. While this saddens me, it fits right in with Edgar’s personality, avoiding the entire farewell tour that other stars have dragged out over their last seasons. I would like to see the fans given at least one more chance to give him a standing ovation in uniform, but this is his call, and I trust him to make the one he’s most comfortable with.
Personally, I’m blaming the freakish looking bear.
The Mariners have called a press conference for 2:30 pm pacific time, reportedly to announce the retirement of Edgar Martinez. I cannot get specifics at this time, but I would be surprised if the retirement was effective immediately. I’d imagine he’ll get a pretty big going-out party during the next homestand, at least.
The end of an era has come. Rather than attempt to write my own tribute to Edgar, I’ll simply point you to the best one you’ll ever read. It’s Derek’s finest piece of writing, and perhaps the best writing about baseball you’ll read this year.