2062.16 Financial Decisions Loom

[ae37jr]

Financial Decisions Loom

Brooks and Done?
Nobody has been a part of the Twin Cities River Monsters organization longer than Erik Brooks. Soon that streak may come to an end though. 33 year old Erik Brooks contract expires following this season and Brooks and the River Monsters are still far apart in negotiations.

Brooks is seeking a 5 year guaranteed contract worth $10.6 million per season. That would cover his age 34-38 seasons. The River Monsters feel that he may be worth $10 million for his age 34 and 35 seasons.. but after that? Twin Cities has sent proposals for similar money and less years as well as less money for more years that would ensure Brooks retires as a River Monster. Brooks and his agent won't budge off of their $57 million demand.

We saw a similar situation last year with Jerry Stone. Twin Cities eventually caved in and gave Stone 5 years and $12.6 million. So it makes sense for Brooks to ask for similar. The big difference is age though. Stone's contract runs from his age 30-34 seasons. So it's not really apples to apples comparing the two negotiations. The expected drop off for a starting pitcher from age 34-38 is a major cause for concern. Especially since Brooks is already losing some velocity and stuff.

Negotiations have been ongoing. Every week the team is checking in with Brooks agent to see if they can catch him slipping. The River Monsters are prepared to over pay to keep a sentimental favorite. But they simply refuse to hand out an overtly bad contract. It's expected that negotiations will almost certainly spill over into the off season(OOTP 26... not sure if negotiations are easier or harder in new version. Worth a shot.)

Max Here for the Min?
Newly acquired Max Shepperson could find himself as a free agent as well. The 30 year old English/Welsh slugger has told the team he wants to win the Brewster first and talk later. We knew this was a possibility, but it's still not ideal. Locking up Shepperson for 3-4 years would ensure the River Monsters would have a top offense in the league for the foreseeable future.

Shepperson is said to have a good relationship with manager Gerald Brandt, bench coach Nick Pearce, and hitting instructor Lloyd Ramirez. He does request to be a cleanup hitter. We are hoping batting 3rd is close enough. The whole point of having him here is to bat in front of Raul Gallehos... and we're not dropping Gallehos down. We expect as his morale should improve in our ecstatic clubhouse. Having the 2nd best record in the BBA should help too. All signs point toward Shepperson wanting to talk extension. To be honest, I can't remember the last time a player refused to negotiate with us. Oh wait....

No Payne... No Gain
Alex Payne refuses to negotiate with us also. Not that we were really looking to extend the 36 year old overpaid journeyman anyway. I just like to do due diligence and see what kind of deal is out there. Payne likely won't talk because he is mad about his own personal performance. My guy, you have a 1.53 ERA and 10.2 k/9 in his short time in the Land O' Lakes. You can't pitch any better than that. Check out your career numbers bro... you suck.

In all seriousness, we wouldn't mind bringing Payne back on a one year deal. But we are simply not going to over pay for a mid tier reliever.

Shed Some Payroll?
When we traded for Miller Shed, we were thirsty for left handed hitters. We also tasked ourselves with "fixing him". We feel somewhat successful as Shed is hitting .318/.362/.355 with 1.7 WAR in 84 games with us. His gap power appears to be lost for good.

His current contract ask is 1 yr $7.5 million. His arb estimate is $6.8. We feel both of those numbers are a little pricey. The play of rookie Octavio Sanchez and influx of lefty bats such as Shepperson, Ramos and Aquilar have made Shed more of a luxury than a priority. We could technically flip or nontender Shed and still be ok. But middle infield depth is vital to a winning team.

Expect Twin Cities and Shed to enter deep negotiations this month. He recently hit the 5 year mark and is eligible for a long term deal. Normally it isn't wise to give a long term deal to a lumping player. But we feel he's still a solid 2-3 WAR player. Maybe we can catch a deal in the long term.

Team Options
River Monsters are expected to decline the team options of Will Ritter, Niaz Minhas, and Yoshii Takuda. Minhas and Takuda are both said to be willing to come back at a deep discount. Maybe even a huge discount if Twin Cities decides to stretch the money out long term, giving them a couple of extra bucks in the severance package. Ritter on the other hand, barely dodged being released recently, will be allowed to leave gracefully at the end of the regular season.

No decision has been made on Tokugawa Yamashita yet. Rating wise.. he looks like dog shit. Yet somehow he always gets the job done. His $1.4 million option is easy to swallow if we make a bad decision. So I want to say he will stay.

Long Term Deals
We've been monitoring some arb players who we want to lock up. Most notably Randall Grey, Ruben Flores and Juan Serna. None of whom have hit the 5 year mark yet. Our analytics team has been working on a "trick" that we feel may revolutionize the way teams handle arbitration age players. I don't want to say it's new, I've seen it done before. Not sure if it was intentional though. One or more of these players will likely be the guinea pig. It's a two part strategy. The first would occur sometime next season.

Welp, that's it for the financial update. I should have split this up into 6 TN. Oh well. Sometimes the long ones are better than the "30 second" thrilla's.

[BaseClogger]

Look at you with 16 posts. The writing juices must be flowing.

[ae37jr]

This is the most fun team I have had in a long time. A lot of good stories. I almost don't even care if we win the Brewster. I just want to win the division once.

[ae37jr]

If I sweep Nashville and lead the division tonight, I promise a Calica winning fantasy story tomorrow. I've had the idea for a while.

[Dington]

If I sweep Nashville and lead the division tonight, I promise a Calica winning fantasy story tomorrow. I've had the idea for a while.

I half want that to happen.