Once I got to looking at them all, and separating them apart to study I figured I should do the same here. If nothing else it will make Sean envious of my ability to gather more points, and that’s worth the process all by itself.
Once I decided on that path, I figured I might as well start with the simplest and easiest—Vesting options. These are always interesting to me because I think the league as a whole often thinks of teams giving vesting options as a safety valve since they can pretty much ensure that said option is met or not, depending on the team’s desire. What’s real, though? Meaning what is actually happening?
To get a better picture, let’s look at actual players and results in the BBA.
The league had four such contracts in existence at the end of this year, the most famous, of course, was Bikini’s $12.4M albatross that required Wilson Andrade to make 490 plate appearances before it kicked in. Needless to say, Andrade “missed it by this much.” But what about the others? How did the players fare, and what’s on the agenda for them now?
Here are the four:
Team | Pos | Name | Age | Type | Notes | 2058 | 2059 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
BIK | 3B | Wilson Andrade | 37 | V | 490 PA | $12.4m | $12.4m(V) |
TWC | C | Pepe Prieto | 37 | V | 400 PA | $3.8m | $3.8m(V) |
OMA | SS | Logan Niles | 35 | V | 75 Games | $975k | $975k(V) |
RMO | RP | Micheal Dixon | 34 | V | 50 IP | $3.5m | $3.6m(V) |
Pepe Prito’s deal with Twin Cities required him to make 400 PA to net $3.8M. Since 330 is less than 400, he’s out there on the market again, and his $1.5/1 year ask makes him an interesting candidate for a team that literally has no backup catcher at all in their organization. I’d put his chances of finding a BBA team at low to middling. Maybe he’ll latch on with the GBC?
Rocky Mountain’s Michael Sixon and Omaha’s [Logan Niles both met their vesting criteria, and returned to their teams for next year. But then the 35-year-old Niles did the unthinkable for an old guy with a contract and decided to retire. Interesting, right? I kind of like that. It makes me wonder if v25 will have a bit more of a strongarm approach to retirees. As the Magic 8 Ball says, check again later.