The Brewster

Earlier this week, Madison catcher Elroy Hinson announced he would use his player opt out clause and opt out of a guaranteed $13 million for 2038 and forfeit the chance at a $17 million team option deal in 2039 or a $3 million buyout clause and opt to see what the open market dictated his services were worth. Well, in a complete change of heart, Hinson still opted out of the previous deal but has announced today that he'll sign a new deal with the Wolves and stay in Madison.

His new deal is a 3 year deal with the third year being a team option. His new deal will pay him $15 million in 2038 with a guaranteed $13 million in 2039 with the team option for $11 million in 2040 which comes with a team buyout of $2.6 million. All in all, both parties appear happy with the deal.

"We are glad to keep Elroy in a Wolves uniform" said Wolves assistant GM Bopper Kengos. "We kind of knew he may opt out of the deal we signed him for last off-season so we were already in some preliminary discussions with his agent and Elroy himself on what it might take for him to stay. Aside from his overall baseball ability, we felt keeping his leadership and character in our clubhouse next season was a huge bonus to our chances of making it to the post-season again in 2038."

Despite some injuries which have cause Hinson to miss some games, he's been a top caliber catcher when healthy and hasn't shown much decline in his ability despite being 38 years old. Last season he played 104 games while hitting .278/.357/.430 with 12 homeruns and 54 runs batted in. He posted a 2.2 WAR despite missing part of August and all of September. He returned just in time for the post-season series against Omaha where he hit .333/.429/.500 in the 5 game series with a homerun.

"I'm glad to be back here in Madison" the future hall of fame catcher said today. "This team has a great mix of young and veteran guys. The offense is loaded. If we can get a few arms this off-season we could make a real play at the division and maybe the Frick League pennant."

This one might make sense in the end. And that deal seems reasonable for you. Jesus Ramos .... not so much.

Ted wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 04, 2019 12:09 pm

This one might make sense in the end. And that deal seems reasonable for you. Jesus Ramos .... not so much.

I think my offense is going to keep us competitive until I can figure out and build up some pitching (who knows if that will ever happen) so keeping Hinson around was a must. Madison's lineup doesn't have an extremely weak spot in it, which it would have had I let Hinson walk and rode with Katzenbogen.

FWIW, I'd love to have Ramos at that deal in Madison.