David Price Doesn’t Want To Play For The Mariners
A few things, right away. Three of them. One, David Price doesn’t have a no-trade clause. He has no say in where he gets dealt, in the event that he does actually get dealt. Two, David Price on a long-term contract doesn’t necessarily provide that much in the way of surplus value. That is, Price will end up paid market rate, meaning he’d be ultra expensive for a long time. Three, trade negotiations don’t have to involve an extension, just like how the James Shields trade didn’t involve an extension. Trade for Price and you’re dealing for two years of arbitration eligibility. Those are details. This is the report to which the details belong:
Just saw David Price’s agent, Bo McKinnis, in lobby. Asked if Price would consider extension with #Mariners. Said no. MORE
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 11, 2013
Asked McKinnis if Price would consider extensions with other teams. Said yes. Asked which clubs. He declined to answer.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 11, 2013
That seems pretty clear. There are teams for which Price would like to play, and those are the teams with which he’d be willing to talk something long-term. The Mariners aren’t one of them, meaning any Price trade would presumably mean two years and subsequent compensation. Which is what we assumed, but anyway. Of course, Price could always change his mind. Maybe, if he played for the Mariners, he’d fall in love with Seattle, like so many people do. Maybe the Mariners will stop being a bad baseball team, and then they’ll be more appealing as a destination. But right now Price isn’t jazzed about Seattle, and that doesn’t make a trade to the M’s more likely. The Mariners probably don’t want to make a big deal of trading for a guy who’d rather be somewhere else.
Not that this trade has looked likely for a little while. Word is the Mariners don’t want to give up Taijuan Walker or James Paxton, and it wouldn’t make any sense for them to move Brad Miller or Mike Zunino. Nick Franklin is the expendable guy, and as talented as he is, the Rays probably have their hearts set on a stronger return. Maybe they’ll get it from Arizona or Los Angeles. I think you could make a good argument that Franklin could be the centerpiece of a fair deal, but I think the Mariners are looking in other places. I think they might actually realize Price isn’t the best thing they can do. I know, I’m a dreamer.
Incidentally, one notes one of the things the Robinson Cano acquisition was supposed to do is make people more likely to want to play for Seattle. Hasn’t worked on Price. Apparently didn’t work on a now-signed free agent. Cano was never going to be a magic solution, and any effect would be small, and an effect probably does exist, but really it has to be about winning. To be appealing, to players and to fans, the Mariners have to win. Cano should help toward that end, at least for some years, but it’ll be a team effort so to speak. You don’t become a destination overnight.
Anyway, to sum up: David Price thinks he’s better than this. For all I know he’s probably right. Doesn’t mean a trade can’t happen, and doesn’t mean Price couldn’t come to love the area and the organization, but whatever the odds were of a deal before, now they have to be just a little bit lower. You want players who want you. Or who at least want your money.
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20 Responses to “David Price Doesn’t Want To Play For The Mariners”
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If the dots connect the way you are connecting them here, well then, good. No need to damn him to a Cliff-Lee-in-2010-style purgatory. And it’s not a knock on him if he doesn’t want to come here.
Thank you for saving the Mariners from themselves, Mr. Price! He’s kind of like this year’s Upton, perhaps.
Nightengale and Heyman both making it sound like Mariners have a good chance at Hart. I’d love to see that. Hopefully they make some smart moves like this and they don’t make a desperate move like giving up far too much for Price. Or Cruz.
Oh and Jayson Stark said it doesn’t look like Ibanez will end up back in Seattle! 😛
Raul and Morse are getting lots of love from other places – we could use one as a bench bat. Probably Raul, Morse is supposedly asking for $7-$9M. Prices Price Is Right is wrong. Who needs him. Z is supposedly think of bringing Guti back, most assuredly in an incentive based deal. Good.
Morse can ask for $7-9 million; doesn’t mean he’ll get it. After stinking up the joint (two different joints, I suppose) last year a lot of teams may think he’s done.
I realize he was injured, but he’s been injured before – fairly frequently. And even old school teams realize that one-dimensional ball players like Morse often fall off a cliff pretty fast when they get into their 30s.
If we’re going to take a flyer on a righty bat, I’d prefer Guti. Dude is actually a decent hitter when he’s not on the DL.
In regards to Price, to quote the Irish: “Let the door hit him where the good Lord split him.”
I love the potential addition of Hart. I don’t think we get Choo and at the price/his age/contract length maybe that turns out to be a good thing. I’ve become infatuated with role players and the using a platoon idea, so the addition of Hart supports that.
Having Guiti does scare me but if he can stay healthy and not be 100% relied on, then maybe some role players would be the way to go. I’ll never convince Mr.ZDevotee and maybe my idea is just a sabremetric wet dream. On paper though the idea is awesome.
It appears he was born in TN, went to High School and College there as well. It might not have anything to do with the shitty-ness factor of the Mariners.
Assume Hart would share time with Smoak at 1B as well as spend time at DH. Perhaps 1B against lefties and DH against righties. Would be a very good signing. He’s been a very good OBP and SLG guy over his career and a right handed bat which is needed.
M’s got Hart on a one year deal!
Love the Hart signing! Love it.
If he doesn’t want to be here, so be it. Price is not the Messiah …Meanwhile, what’s up with the negativity I encounter about Cano? I was in my local card shop and the owner goes off about Cano and the ‘roids’ … Has Cano ever been positively id’d as a juicer? There was something “all over the internet” last spring, he said. I’m like, “what?”
I figure anyone within a proximity of ARoid is “suspect”.
I like the Hart signing. Its good protection for Cano.
Miller SS BL
Gutierrez RF BR(if he signs)
Cano 2b BL
Hart 1B/DH BR
Seager 3B BL
Smoak 1B/DH BB
Saunders CF BL
Zunnino C BR
Ackley LF BL
Good L/R balance
The Hart signing is good for three reasons; as Divish tweeted, now they don’t have to panic over Choo, they can just try to negotiate the best deal. One also presumes this takes them largely out of the Nelson Cruz market, but that might be wishful thinking. Also, it seems to me the M’s can now concentrate on trying to sign a starter (I still like the Ubaldo Jiminez idea), unless they’re holding off on seeing what happens with Tanaka. Frankly, I’m a little nervous over whether he gets posted at all.
Corey Hart on the M’s? Great choice for the team. Also very cool in an 80’s MTV way. I’ll need to break out my raybans for night games this year.
Shit! They just got Logan Morrison, too, for Carter Capps. Who are these guys making deals for the M’s?
@maqman, hadn’t heard that about Guti…I’d been kinda hoping we’d bring him back on a value-and-compensation contingent deal, so hopefully something will come of it at a palatable price. At some point, barring some ongoing uncurable health problem, he almost by rights HAS to be able to get through most of a season, right? I mean, he’s gotta be close to setting the MLB record for consecutive years of crappy health, can’t he just regress to the mean of at least average health?!
Whether or not Morrison pans out, it’s good to know we won’t have to watch Capps get pounded game after game this year! Hurrah.
I think you are all forgetting that the key signing that is bringing all of the free agents to Seattle is Willie Bloomquist. It wasn’t until after we signed him that Cano considered to sign with us.
Maybe we should rename him Willie Baseball.