MLB: Are the Cards the Only Team Negotiating With Matt Holliday?
Matt Holliday is widely considered the top available free agent this winter yet we have heard very little about teams negotiating with Holliday’s agent Scott Boras. Is it because of Boras’ outlandish claims that Holliday deserves a contract on par with what Mark Teixeira got from the Yankees last year, or, is it because the big market teams like the Yankees and Red Sox are not in the market for a player of Holliday’s ilk this winter?
Rumors have ranged far and wide as to the fate of Holliday ever since the season ended. Initially it was believed the market for Holliday was going to consist of the Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, and maybe the Mets. Those are the only teams believed to be willing to give someone a $100 million dollar contract these days.
This, of course, is a knee jerk assessment by the media that just assumes these days have money to burn and are willing to spend whatever it takes to win the World Series. What they fail to realize, though, is a lot of teams are scaling back this winter due to the economy and fans not having the extra income to spend on tickets and merchandise like they have in the past.
The Yankees have decided to try and scale back the payroll a bit this winter, besides, they have no need for a player like Holliday. On top of that, after breaking the bank on Teixeira, A. J. Burnett, and C. C. Sabathia last winter, they need to start planning for two or three years down the road. They need to figure out how to pay for Derek Jeter’s next contract as well as potentially locking up younger players like Robinson Cano, Joba Chamberlain, and Phil Hughes to long term deals. The Yankees are basically holding on to the core of the ’09 team so there is no need to run out and obtain a bunch of big name talent the way it did last season.
The Red Sox were said to have a preference of re-signing Jason Bay as opposed to grabbing Holliday who is likely going to command more money than Bay ends up signing for. The Sox offered Bay four years at $60 million and were not willing to go higher than that. With that said they obviously do not have the stomach for Holliday at this point. The addition of John Lackey further removes them from the Holliday conversation.
Until they signed Hideki Matsui the Angels were the only high profile franchise that made sense to go after Holliday, but, now that they have Matsui under contract and have re-signed Bobby Abreu it makes them a less likely option for Holliday. Where do they fit him into the lineup with Abreu, Torii Hunter, and Juan Rivera in the outfield and Matsui at DH. It was initially thought the Angels would try and land Holliday to play left and move Rivera to DH.
Rumors have surfaced this week about the Orioles making a play for Holliday, but, those have been quickly shot down by ESPN’s Buster Olney who says the the Orioles had inquired about Holliday a couple of weeks ago but were not comfortable with what Boras was asking for in return and bowed out. The O’s would be wise to hang onto their cash and reserving it for potential long-term deals with some of their budding young talent like Adam Jones, Nolan Reimold, and Matt Wieters.
The Mets seem to be more interested in signing Bay than Holliday as well. It is being reported that GM Omar Minaya does not want to spend more than $75 million for a corner outfielder which leaves Holliday out of the equation.
Ultimately, this leads only the Cardinals who are rumored to have offered Holliday a 5-year deal worth roughly $17 million per season which is what the Rockies offered him last winter before eventually dealing him to Oakland. It is believed that Holliday has no objections to re-signing with St. Louis only that he has no intentions of signing for under market value to stay there.
The Cards are in no rush to up the ante simply because they do not think anyone else is in serious negotiations with Boras on Holliday and they are not about to start bidding against themselves for Holliday’s services. In another off season where the economy were not such an issue Holliday probably could name his price and get it, but, teams are being cautious this winter as nobody knows what this season may held in terms of revenues and they do not want to potentially over extend themselves.
Until another legitimate offer can be confirmed for Holliday’s services one has to believe that the Cards are the only team in the running right now. This is almost beginning to look eerily like last winter’s saga when another Boras client, Manny Ramirez, sat around waiting for that huge offer to come and ended up taking what the Dodgers gave him which was nothing close to the deal Boras claimed Manny was looking for.
As it turned out with Manny the Dodgers were the only team ever seriously interested in Manny despite what we heard about the Giants and other teams being interested. As was the case with Manny I suspect is going to end up being the case with Holliday who seems to be destined to end up back in St. Louis for significantly less than Boras claimed his client deserved.
Rumor is that the Red Sox, Mets, Yankees & Orioles have interest Holliday. Do you think this is Boras’ way of negotiating with the media? Planting the correct seeds and hoping that the Cards will bite?
Yes, this is how he generally does things. He always claims to have several offers for all of his clients only to see them sign with the team that made the first decent offer four weeks prior. One cannot believe half of what comes out of Scott Boras’ mouth when it comes to contract negotiations.
I’m wondering if the Cards have an expiration on their offer? Why do they make an offer to Holliday only to have him shop it around? Give him 72 hours to make a decision and pull it off the table. Am I missing something?
I don’t know. The only reason I can think of is they know they are not bidding with anyone right now. It is a Catch-22 for them. They know they need to re-sign Holliday to have a shot at contending next season.
The other issue is the longer this drags on the less of an opportunity they are going to have to address lesser needs on the team. They can’t make any other moves until they know how much money they are ultimately going to have to spend on other players.
The only other option they have right now is pulling the offer to Holliday and flipping a similar deal to Bay who would jump at a five year deal worth $15 to $16 million a year.