From a September 19 article: On Saturday, Click would not answer whether there is an insurance policy within Verlander’s contract that would come into play during the 2021 season he will now miss.
Heyman and Murray are both hacks. Murray is one of those nut job BBWAA writers, IIRC he was staunchly anti-Bagwell.
Castro camp putting out designed leaks to try and raise the price. Astros bidding against themselves... hopefully not.
On 66 mil, 8-10 mil sounds about right and for a 37 year old pitcher you take that into account when negotiating a contract.
Not answering makes it more likely he was at least partially insured. Owners always like to plead poverty for PR purposes. If he wasn’t insured, we would be hearing more about the “dead money” as an excuse for not signing / resigning anyone.
So then it's unlikely they would *only* insure Verlander (if they did, they got super lucky!). What about Greinke? Or Altuve and his balky knee? Does it make sense to spend $20MM to insure a bunch of players, or just use that money to go get an extra player like Brantley? That way, if one of Verlander/Greinke/Altuve gets hurt, you have a Brantley to help make up for it. If they don't get hurt, you are that much better. Insuring a bunch of players from injury is a losing proposition, just like buying GeekSquad protection plans on all your electronics is going to end up being a losing proposition even if one of products breaks down.
Eh, it's the cost of doing business. I'm sure all of those guys have varying amount of insurance on their contracts. The insurance on the position players is a lot less than the pitchers, as they're much less likely to lose an entire season. They're not insuring against a balky knee that'll cost Tuve 20 games in a 162 game season.
Was curious after your discussion on player insurance and I thought this article was interesting. I'm sure there are other variables at play, but this article would imply that it would cost around ~7% to insure Verlander's $66 million 2 year contract which would be around $4.62 million. The insurance policy should recoup 60-80% of his contract, and most teams will get insurance on a contract that size while age, injury history, and length of contract will play roles in the policy cost. Age is a negative, while his history of being a workhorse, and short contract being a positive. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-100-million-arm-there-is-insurance-for-that/
“ Nikkan Sports reports that several MLB teams have expressed interest in Japanese outfielder Haruki Nishikawa including the Astros, Blue Jays, Cardinals and Diamondbacks. It's unclear whether any of those interested clubs went as far as to submit an offer for the 28-year-old outfielder, who was posted by the Hokkaide Nippoon Ham Fighters. Saturday marks the final day of the 30-day window for MLB teams to work out an agreement with Nishikawa, so we should know before the end of the day whether or not he'll be making the jump to Major League Baseball in 2021. Nishikawa hit .306/.430/.396 with five homers and 42 stolen bases during the 2020 season with the Ham Fighters.” EDIT: Haruki Nishikawa will remain in Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan for the 2021 season. The 28-year-old outfielder was posted by the Hokkaide Nippon Ham Fighters and negotiated with several interested MLB teams, but ultimately was unable to reach an agreement prior to Saturday afternoon's deadline. He'll return to the Ham Fighters where he slashed .306/.430/.396 with five long balls and 42 swipes during an impressive 2020 season
From what I've read, fast enough to play CF, but may not be the most instinctive defender. Arm is not ideal for RF.
I don’t think zero-power Asian outfielders have a very good track record in mlb. I saw a Ben Revere comp, which would be a fringe-everyday CF with plus wheels and on-base skills but a weak arm and no power. Doesn’t sound like much more upside than Myles Straw. But I trust Click.
Being Japanese I would welcome any Japanese players on Houston. Apparently his track record is worse than Akiyama and I didn't think Akiyama was anything special last season for the Reds. Akiyama signed 3 years 21 mil last season so guessing a little under that amount.
Sugano will probably decide on an MLB team or to stay in Japan by end of tomorrow. Of the Nippon and KBO players potentially coming over, Kim and him are the two that are likeliest to make a big impact. Not sure if he's interested in Houston or Houston in him, but a little surprised at how little hype there has been for him. Not expecting him to be as dominant as he is in Japan, but a very good chance he's at least a starting pitcher in the majors.
My guess is after Springer and Realmuto sign. I think players are hoping some teams swoop in unexpectedly and signs these guys leaving the Blue Jays, Mets, and Phillies with money in their pockets fighting over the remains. If those two sign with two of the Blue Jays, Mets, and Phillies, players will be frantically signing hoping not to get left out of the musical chairs of money the other owners are willing to spend. On a side note, when the offseason picks up, it will likely be a frenzy.
I expected something to have happened by now. There are only 6 weeks until pitchers report, so it's fairly safe to assume the pace will pick up dramatically in the next 2-3 weeks. The floodgates could open at any moment. I think teams are trying to stall as long as possible to get a better idea of when the season will start and how many fans they might be able to expect etc. In Houston's case, they could think they are still in the running with Springer and are waiting on him to sign before moving on to other targets.
