Castro and Cubs reach a seven year deal

[waldo7239117]

Ya, overpaid veterans not with their original teams #notcomparable

It goes together... showing how players are overpaid if you wait. Also, Arod now (2nd contract). Also, how they decline, will decline.

 

[Anno Catuli]

Theo says nothing finalized on Castro contract. Beyond that no comment.

 

[2SeamHeat]

http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/id/8280480/chicago-cubs-starlin-castro-agrees-seven-year-60-million-extension-source
ESPNChicago article

8 years, and it's not even $10M per even with the option... big discount for the club.

 

[Jntg4]

It goes together... showing how players are overpaid if you wait. Also, Arod now (2nd contract). Also, how they decline, will decline.

Ya, exactly, A-Rod on 2nd contract, this is Castro's first big change, it will almost always be cheaper the first time around. And you already said A-Rod, so what the hell is your point when you say "Also, Arod" again?

 

[DewsSox79]

Personally, getting him for < $9MM/year is a good deal for the cubs, imo...given the lack of elite SS talent, one would believe he would be worth more than that in a year or two....but this contract seems to be representative of how he's played this year, and not to what his ceiling is...overall, I think it's a good deal, with potential of being a great deal.

probably the best post in this thread.

 

[2SeamHeat]

Te contract is a good deal... there are so many shitty contracts . Pujols, AROD. Fielder, Werth, Sabathia, Soriano (see, no bias), Zito.. I can be here all day naming players...

Oh well, for the hell of it ... Rios, Wells. Okay, I'm done lol.

Not a single one of those were extensions to buy out arbitration years. Those were all either FA deals or extensions to avoid free agency. There's no comparison here. Those are all bad deals, certainly, but they don't compare.

Real comparisons would be Longoria, Braun, Kershaw, Zimmerman, Reyes, Hanley Ramirez (directly comparable), Mauer's first extension, Morneau, McCutchen, Tabata, etc.

 

[2SeamHeat]

Personally, getting him for < $9MM/year is a good deal for the cubs, imo...given the lack of elite SS talent, one would believe he would be worth more than that in a year or two....but this contract seems to be representative of how he's played this year, and not to what his ceiling is...overall, I think it's a good deal, with potential of being a great deal.

I agree with this entirely. I was expecting $10M per, with a couple of options going well above that. I also think it is very indicative of his performance this year. He's down on a few things, up in many others. He's still progressing, but there's still a huge risk involved. So, they extended him a bit early and signed him for about a mid-level rate if you look at many of the guys who have been extended prior to entering arbitration.

I also think that the reason they pushed it forward now was to get a discount based on the slump... but that they also expect him to continue bringing his numbers up. Otherwise, why not wait until the winter and use his down numbers to get an even deeper discount? The fact that they are giving him close to $10M per overall (the 8th year option makes the deal $76M if exercised), tells me they think he's going to turn into one of the top SS around as well.

I am curious as to the structure of the deal. I also like the fact that they did this. It shows guys like Rizzo and the other up-and-comers that the team is quite willing to reward playing up to their expectations. Rizzo would not have gotten that in SD until he hit free agency.

 

[Uman85]

Great business and baseball deal. Cubs saved a good amount of money and got Castro at a bargain price for now. If he continues to improve defensively and at the plate with more pop in his bat and more patience, it's an even better deal. Great work, Theo.

 

[dabynsky]

I'm just shocked that Castro was willing to let the Cubs buyout three to four years of free agency. This has the potential to be a really nice deal if he puts together the good things from the past couple of months (d and pop) with his contact rates from the past two years. The Cubs have just bought nearly all of Castro's peak years with the deal running through his age 30 season without the option.

 

[Rice Cube]

So is this confirmed or not? Just wondering

 

[dabynsky]

Not confirmed, but not denied either is where we stand.

 

[Rice Cube]

6:01pm: Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reports (on Twitter) that the eighth-year option includes a $1MM buyout that is part of the $60MM guarantee.

Sounds like it's about as confirmed as it can be without being confirmed unless Heyman is just making shit up again.

 

[Mr. Cub]

Not confirmed, but not denied either is where we stand.

It has been going on the bottom of the ESPN ticker.... So who knows.

 

[dabynsky]

6:01pm: Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reports (on Twitter) that the eighth-year option includes a $1MM buyout that is part of the $60MM guarantee.

Sounds like it's about as confirmed as it can be without being confirmed unless Heyman is just making shit up again.

That is an interesting tidbit that the buyout is included in the guaranteed figure.

 

[Jntg4]

Got it via text message from ESPN, source is ESPNdeportesLosAngeles.com apparently
Sox fan beat the Cubs fan to it
Discuss

Also a Mexico fan :smh:

 

[2SeamHeat]

So is this confirmed or not? Just wondering

It wont be confirmed until there's an actual signature on the bottom of the contract. Probably waiting until the team returns to Chicago.

 

[brett05]

Rice is unbreakable. You can not frustrate him.

I've done it so I know it can be done by others

 

[Captain Obvious]

If it's a full 7 years and $60M without an option.... Castro got low-balled and Kinzler gave the team a discount. 7-years $60M is $8.57M per... and if he continues to develop and progress as he has... he'll be wroth a good $14-15M per in a couple of years.

As it is, he'd probably get a raise to around $5M this year through arbitration. Another bump to around $8M for 2014. 2015 would probably have him around the $10-11M rate... just in time to hit free agency and start up a bidding war with 5+ teams and get his $14-15M per. Sign him to 4 years at $14M (which would be the remaining length of this extension), you're looking at $56M. Add in the other low0ball arbitration raises... and you're up to 7 years/$79M.

If you use WAR, he was worth about 14 million last year. That's pretty nice to have out of a SS. That being said, he will never get market value before he hits free agency. That would be just stupid of the Cubs. That's like Hank Hill car shopping and paying the sticker price for a car. Why pay that when you can get it cheaper?

No way he'd get 5 million in his first year of arby. I think the split is 20/50/80(for three years, of course. With next year being an early year, it's almost certainly going be low, in the 20% of market value range). So if we say that he's been worth 30 million (7.7*4) over 3 years, that's 10 per year. You're looking at about 2 million for him this year. Then 5 for 2014, 8 for 2015. So we're looking at a bit less. Plus he gets this money guaranteed. I think this is a very fair deal. For both sides. Thinking that he would get market value is not going to fair well for you.

I think that the biggest cause of concern is his free swinging ness. He is shaping into a lower part of the order hitter. His BB rate has fallen, while his swinging at pitches out of the zone rate has risen. I mean even if he isn't the superstar bat we all want him to be, he's still a solid hitter and that with good defense at SS is wonderful. I just hope that if he continues this free swinging ness they put him lower in the order(as we get better players and the players we have out perform him), because I know that it will be easy to put him at the top because that's what people want, but it's not necessarily going to be what is best for the team.

 

[DewsSox79]

If you use WAR, he was worth about 14 million last year. That's pretty nice to have out of a SS. That being said, he will never get market value before he hits free agency. That would be just stupid of the Cubs. That's like Hank Hill car shopping and paying the sticker price for a car. Why pay that when you can get it cheaper?

No way he'd get 5 million in his first year of arby. I think the split is 20/50/80(for three years, of course. With next year being an early year, it's almost certainly going be low, in the 20% of market value range). So if we say that he's been worth 30 million (7.7*4) over 3 years, that's 10 per year. You're looking at about 2 million for him this year. Then 5 for 2014, 8 for 2015. So we're looking at a bit less. Plus he gets this money guaranteed. I think this is a very fair deal. For both sides. Thinking that he would get market value is not going to fair well for you.

I think that the biggest cause of concern is his free swinging ness. He is shaping into a lower part of the order hitter. His BB rate has fallen, while his swinging at pitches out of the zone rate has risen. I mean even if he isn't the superstar bat we all want him to be, he's still a solid hitter and that with good defense at SS is wonderful. I just hope that if he continues this free swinging ness they put him lower in the order(as we get better players and the players we have out perform him), because I know that it will be easy to put him at the top because that's what people want, but it's not necessarily going to be what is best for the team.

As Goldstein and Kasper have said a million times....on a descent roster he is a 7th place hitter.

 

[Jntg4]

^Do you use BR-WAR of Frangraphs WAR? And we aren't allowed to use WAR here or Dewey explodes