Ryan Braun and Hanley Ramirez are just the latest of the very young stars to ink long term contracts. With their signings the question becomes, why haven’t the Mariners locked up Felix yet?
The idea behind the new big contracts for young players makes a lot of sense. In a time when contracts for mediocre talent are spiraling out of control, teams should invest in the talent that comes up through their farm systems.
While the ends of these contracts seem so far off, by the time a player reaches the last few years of one of these mega-contracts he’ll be a bargain relative to other free agents.
The trend of teams wising up and locking up their young talent isn’t even limited to proven talent anymore.
For heavens sake, Evan Longoria had a huge contract to keep him under team control through 2016 one week after having been called up from AAA.
Felix is clearly a (if not the) key component to the franchise’s long term success. The Mariners seemed to have no problem giving Lopez and Betencourt long term deals even when they were far less proven (and far less talented) than Felix. Then again no one ever accused the Mariners of making the right moves for the franchise’s future.
Additionally, the longer the front office holds off on signing Felix, the more money they’ll be costing themselves. One of the reason these young players get locked up for reasonable terms is that they haven’t truly proven themselves.
Maybe they’ve had one successful season, or show tremendous potential, but they don’t have a history to point to. Felix is only getting better and has 2 1/2 seasons of MLB experience to back up that he can produce.
While his track record may be inconsistent, recent free agent markets have proven that consistency isn’t necessary when dolling out huge chunks of cash.
The more time Felix has to prove himself the more cash he’ll be able to demand. It cannot be that difficult to work out a deal (as proven by all these other contracts getting done). The holdup is probably a issue of years or dollars, but that’s ridiculous figuring the franchise has no problem dolling out 4-years, $48 million for Carlos Silva.
The front office needs to just cave already if they want to keep the future of the franchise happy.
So come on guys, lock The King up.
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Big Unit…
Junior…
ARod…
King Felix????? Show him the money before he shows Seattle his backside on the way out the door.
I love how we’re all assuming Felix wants to be here long term. Signing a young player long-term is only really advantageous when you buy out years of free agency, and to do that the M’s would have to extend Felix through 2012, and that’s only getting one year of free agency. How many years do you promise to a young arm? How much do you put your franchise on the hook for, betting that he’ll stay healthy?
I love Felix as much as the next guy, but we’re not going to be saving much money if we lock him up for three years, and if you go anything beyond five you’re taking a serious gamble that his arm doesn’t fall off next year.
I just don’t see the need to lock him up at this point. He’s ours through 2011. After the 09 season I could see a serious extension (five years, buying out three years of FA), but not now.
They showed Jr and ARod the money. Jr decided to take less money and nobody could have predicted that the Rangers would come up with 252mil for ARod.
I think the M’s will come up with the money for Felix. If he wants to stay is my only question.
Ramirez, Braun and Longoria. All comps layed out.. all position players.
Felix is a pitcher and its a lotter harder on the old logic to ink a young pitcher long term. Felix should be compared to the likes of Matt Cain, Cole Hamels, etc.
Are those guys locked up for 5+ years?
You can buy out arby years and get a lot of value out of that, too, though.
Such as the Rays’ deal struck with Kazmir yesterday.
They pissed felix off by signi ng everyone but him to multie year deals and he will make them pay.Are whole starting staff other then the 2 best ones are signed to stupid comtracts by bumbling bill why not the king? If i was the king i would go year to year until they get me a gm who knows how to put a winning squad on the field hell i might leave as soon as i can so i dont have to travel twice as far as everyone else in baseball…Bavasi blew this one and us the fans will pay so he could sign yuni and loppy and let the king get away.
The part about assuming Felix wants to be here is really moot since he’s still under team control for years and doesn’t have a real choice to play anywhere else. Jason makes a good point. Even if Felix doesn’t want to be in Seattle long term (which I really haven’t seen any evidence of) the Mariners could buy out his arbitration years at the very least. This would probably save them money and make him a happy camper by putting money in his pocket right now, which is something no young players shy away from.
Felix is likely holding out until he has his first big Cy Young-type season, so he can get more money. It’s tremendously unlikely that the reason Bavasi has extended Yuni and Lopez but not Felix is because he values their talents more.
Speculation on Triunfel’s problems:
He watched a couple of M’s games recently, and realized this is his franchise.
He immediately began drinking heavily and got caught drinking underage.
re: zDawg
Funny, but not true. I say that because I don’t want anyone thinking you were serious or that drinking is the reason.
It’s not. He’s got a big mouth and the Mariners are tired of it.
Jim Horner must be especially sick of it.
re: katal
If the Mariners offered Felix and his agent 5 years at 8-9 mil per right this second, there’s not much chance they turn it down.
They might ask for 5@10 and settle in between, but he’s not waiting. The club is waiting.
Which is why it makes no sense in the first place.
What do they do that makes sense?
Lose.
HAHAHAHAHAHA…Lose…Perfect answer.
Wasn’t sure how to get to Jason or any of the writers, so here goes
I’m, Erik and I write the blog futureredbirds.com. I’m trying to put together a collaborative effort amongst baseball bloggers, a 1st round mock draft to be exact. Each team specific bloggers is their team’s scouting director/GM and makes their team’s first pick. I figure it would give us something extra to talk about and it could be a fun and informative exercise. Would you be interested? Let me know at eriknmanningATgmailDOTcom
Hey with Clement going back to Tacoma, who’s coming up? Reed?
Nevermind.. via Baker..
It is Reed.
He’s not with Tacoma, official move tomorrow.