.
1. Congrats to the Yankees.
2. For $25M per year, times 7+ years, you can have any player you want.
3. If I can have any player I want, Masahiro Tanaka is not the player I want. Nor is he 10th on my list.
Restated: Masahiro Tanaka is a real cool pitcher, but once he costs just as much as Cliff Lee, you're nuts. Tanaka was always a promising alternative to legitimate MLB superstars.
In rotisserie, if you have Cliff Lee and the costs are equal, are you going to give up Lee to get Tanaka?!
Shandler has Tanaka as worth $12 on draft day, and that's a compliment. HQ has him about 15th-20th in both leagues, per draft value.
..........
So ... returning to our question of "If you could have any player you want." It so happens that Lee makes exactly $25M the next two years -- what a coinky-dink -- and then $27.5M for the third year. If Tanaka-san had been willing to take 3 years, rather than 7, that would have been pretty sweet, wouldn't it?
Just this winter, MLBTradeRumors again gives the Phillies as soliciting offers on Cole Hamels and Cliff Lee. (Yes, the language at sources like that one, and this one, means "soliciting offers." They'd like to move either pitcher.)
Last year, Cliff Lee ran a stupefying line of 9.0K, 1.3BB, and 0.9HR. He ran the same one the year before, and the year before ... you know who Cliff Lee is. He used to pitch here.
Cole Hamels isn't 100 yards worse. His line, last year, was 8.3K, 2.0BB, 0.9HR.
Granted, Ruben Amaro is accused of asking way too much talent, especially for Lee who is on a Cano-level contract. Then again, what would you want for Felix Hernandez, who also makes Tanaka :- ) money?
..................
We remember one time George Steinbrenner reeled in Jason Giambi for $1 billion and gloated, "he's not just a great player. He's our kind of player." You know, because it's the stylistic taste that made the Yankees what they were...
Heh!
Hey. Cliff Lee, and Cole Hamels, and David Price, those are my kind of pitchers, dude. I'm all about stylistic taste. And if the Mariners brought (say) Cole Hamels to spring training, wouldn't we all be more amp'ed than in The Tanaka Scenario?
I'll bet you could get SOMEBODY like that, without coughing up Taijuan or K-Pax. If you're willing to pay a Tanaka salary.
...
Dr. D would even settle for Jeff Samardzija if he were absolutely forced; we're not greedy at SSI. Samardzija fanned 9.0 men last year, good BB and HR ... he had a 48% grounder rate to go with those strikeouts, is improving year-to-year, and features a Tanaka-style forkball. Think Danny Farquhar plus a splitfinger pitch ...
Samardzija would well-and-truly reprise the Jeff Fassero trade that finally landed the Mariners a #2 ace to go behind Randy Johnson. Samardzija is at least as good, now, as Fassero was then.
...................
At any rate, the dam breaks on the free agent/trade logjam, they say. Let's see what, if anything, the Mariners promised Robinson Cano about playoff contention.
BABVA,
Jeff
Don't the Phils also have a disgruntled closer with a bad contract in need of a "change of scenery?"
Anyway, I would love to have K-Pax charting any one from that group for the next three seasons. Z seems to think Paxton is special and thus should go get him a really great mentor.
I don't think Seattle will now spend any additional real money. I think they'll sign a mushy "project" for the rotation and a couple of cheap relievers and that'll be that.
The Tanaka was supposed to be a buy without burning up prospects, which have become the baseball Bitcoin of the day.
I'm with Matt. Any substantial move... I'll believe it when I see it.
What stands out to me is how careful they're being with the "real" money deals. I suspect someone, somewhere made a decision that there would be no more Carlos Silva/Chone Figgins style mistakes. The big money is fine for Felix and fine for someone with the creds of a Cano, but that's a no on cluttering up our payroll with the likes of Nick Swisher or Michael Bourn.
I wonder though if an exception would be made for Cliff Lee. He seems like someone Lincoln would get behind.
If other teams are willing to move their aces because they are rebuilding, then gladly take one off their hands. Frankly, Lee has more value than Price due to the lengths of their contracts, and maybe Hamels and Samardzija as well. But Lee is an absolute pro, and maybe my favorite Mariner when he was here. Can we just send Philly the players we got for Lee from Texas? In then end, I too am a skeptic, so I expect a reclamation project for the rotation (Saunders/Harang/Bondo II) and some bullpen fodder. We spent our cookies on Cano and plan to sell a lot of new jerseys.
Why would Lee consent to a trade to Seattle? This is still a 4th place club and he's seen this organizations dysfunction up close and personal.
Well, you cross that bridge when you come to it. Justin Upton notwithstanding, most of the time these things work out. But, if you have to add another year onto the deal, that could remove the incentive from the Mariner side of the equation.
Of course, this is all just speculation. The Mariner front office never gives us anything real until a deal is done.