According to Fox Sports, the Rays are about to sign uber 3B prospect Evan Longoria to a long term deal. The deal is believed to be in the 6 year, $17mil range and there would be options for them to buy out his last 2 seasons of arbitration. A fantastic deal from both sides and it just makes you sigh as a Marlins fan. When you see guys like Troy Tulowitzki, Fausto Carmona, Curtis Granderson, and Grady Sizemore (not to mention many other young stars) get these reasonably cheap long term deals you feel like punching things.
I don't know if it's more the Marlins don't believe in this kind of thing (which would be beyond idiotic) or that they don't want to shell out money (sigh) but we could have signed Hanley to a 6-7 year deal in the $30-35mil range after his rookie year and we did nothing. Now he's en route to having a HUGE deal at some point when he's done with arbitration. Maybe we're waiting till Opening Day in the new park and Hanley will be still be locked up, but it's definitely disconcerning.
At this point, Hanley is not going to go for a smaller deal. What they need to do though is try and lock up Jeremy Hermida now and when Cam Maybin comes up, him too. Those are the 2 "musts" I see right now. Uggla? Absolutely not. I like Josh Willingham alot but by the time he starts making real time money, he'll be 30-31 and there probably won't be room for him on this team anyway. Same goes for Jake.
Here's a breakdown of some of the contracts listed above.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Good day to be a Rays fan, another slap in the face to Marlins fans
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2 comments:
Even though many of those years are arbitration-eligible, the Rays just made a brilliant move. What better PR can you get than that?
The Marlins can definitely do the same with Hermida and Maybin, and I'd like to see them copy the Rays with the up-and-comers like Volstad too. Now is when you can get them cheap, and you can always find a taker if they aren't performing (at those contract rates, for sure).
Don't sign anybody. They should keep doing what they are doing, how they are doing it.
It's working...and it's more interesting.
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