"I told them they're free to call Scott (Boras) whenever they want. That was the extent of the conversation & since then Scott has not been contacted by anyone from the club. This seems more like a phone call negotiation involving the media than anything" Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow employs a policy of not commenting on specific contract negotiations. He deployed it on Friday, qualifying his answer only with “I’ve always maintained that (Verlander and Cole) are two of the best pitchers in baseball and we’d love to keep them here as long as we can.” Owner Jim Crane, who attended Friday’s news conference announcing Alex Bregman’s five-year, $100 million extension, said it “just depends on what those guys want to do.” “Jeff handles all that, but I’ve been aware that we’re interested in possibly one or both of those guys if we can work it,” Crane said. “It really depends on those guys. We’re always open-minded, if the deal is good for the team.”
If all Verlander wants is $69M/2yrs, I consider that a steam. Anything less than a $100M commitment is a good deal. Sale’s deal ($145M/7yrs) should be a proxy for Cole and I would be ok with giving him that much. I would guess that extending both Cole and Verlander would really push payroll to its limits and would mean Springer and Correa are out.
Don’t be dramatic. You have zero concerns about him as a full time starter? I think he will be about what Fiers was in 2017... valuable in stretches but ultimately on the bubble for the postseason roster.
Sale has 2.5x the career WAR of Cole without the inconsistent seasons and greater longevity. He's also not a guy who ever complained about being underpaid when he was, saying it was none of his business. That's why he settled for his contract despite consistent excellence, not because of health concerns. Verlander already made his hundreda millions, don't see him squeezing Crane for every last penny when it will affect his team's ability to win WS. If Cole is leaving it to Boras without having his say, he's made it pretty clear what's going to happen.
Wow. Sounds like they really are about to close the deal with Verlander. If so I don’t see single hole in next season’s roster. Verlander, Whitley, McCullers, Peacock, and one of James/Martin/Perez/Valdez/Bielak/Bukauskas is a fine rotation.
I don’t see how we sign both of them and have any flexibility going forward. Would love to lock Verlander down right now though.
Backloading doesn't help for tax purposes, but backloading money may help cash flow. If (big if) Astros signed Cole to an extension, I expect they would backload cash to help cash flow, but include this year to lower future tax numbers by about 4 million a year. Granted, someone would likely need to be traded with a prospect to free up some money this year. On a slightly related note, I really like the Bregman extension as I think it makes other extensions more likely. Instead of his tax number increasing every year as other players are also getting raises, his tax number is spread evenly over 5 years. It adds a lot more certainty regarding future talent and salary payments. The same goes for the Pressly extension. Free agent market couldn't crash at a better time for the Astros.
Oh sure, the Stros have their internal financials and budget that we aren't privy to. Crane may decide to go into taxland at some point also, it doesn't really become onerous until you go 20M over (40M over pushes your 1st draft pick back 10 spots too) and do it for multiple years in a row. Not sure I get your point re: Bregman's extension being spread evenly vs increasing every year wrt the CBT, unless you're talking about extensions in general vs going off a string of increasing 1-year contracts.
I would offer Cole 5 year 145-150 extension. Would not go over 5 years. That keeps him here until he’s 33. Very fair offer, if he turns it down... tip your cap to him. Gets to play for a team that will be gunning for a championship for those 5 years. I’m assuming he is healthy and a team player, easy to work with and well liked in clubhouse. Willing to work with the young kids. Obviously if those things aren’t there, I’m not interested in a long term contract with him.
Depends on how you define merit. His 6 season career compares pretty favorably to Verlander's last 6 seasons - and he's far younger. Verlander just got $33MM/yr. He's substantially better than Corbin, who was just paid $24MM/yr and will be the same age when he's a FA. I'd rather have 1 Cole than 2 Evoldis ($17MM/yr). Etc.
Cole is better than Corbin and Corbin received 23.33 million AAV with a bunch of deferred money. If Cole has another year like last year he will be asking for somewhere near 30 million a year. An extension would fall somewhere between the 23.33 and 30 million per year. Cole gets the security without worrying about the risk of injury or poor performance in 2019 and the Astros get a SLIGHT discount from full market value. I would guess somewhere between 25-28 million per year with possible opt outs and escalators.
If talks haven't begun with Cole, I don't think there is much time to get a deal done before the weekend is up. So--out of Cole, Springer and Correa, which 1 would you keep? (Unlikely to be able to afford mega extensions to more than 1--although you could argue that Correa's extension wouldn't need to begin until Verlander's ends.)
Agreed, but the two projections I questioned were using his current career rather than extending after they see what he does this year.
