The Red Sox will have control of the next three years of Kimbrel’s contract, according to CBSSports.com.
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Earlier, the Braves completed a $3 million, one-year contract to keep catcher A.J. Pierzynski. Instead, in a surprising move, Wieters is reportedly staying with the Baltimore Orioles for another season, taking a $15.8 million qualifying offer and seeing what free agency will hold for him in a year’s time. When a player lets the deadline pass to test the market, his former team receives an additional high selection in the June draft if he signs somewhere else. Those “sandwich” picks are awarded when players sign with new teams in free agency.
Matt Wieters thought long and hard about being a free agent. The Baltimore catcher is a three-time All-Star who hit.267/.319/.422 in 2015 despite missing the first half while recuperating from Tommy John surgery.
238 with 25 home runs and 61 RBI in 137 games last season. This year’s group, which must decide whether to accept by 5 p.m. EST, includes second baseman Daniel Murphy (Mets), outfielder Colby Rasmus (Astros) and pitcher Marco Estrada (Blue Jays). While it wasn’t a complete surprise that Rasmus took the Astros offer, it was that Wieters did. That, combined with the fact that he has never thrown more than 193 innings in a season and was not widely heralded when he came over from the Japan after the 2011 season, seems likely to make him somewhat undervalued relative to the strong season he had this past year.
The trio of free agents, who agreed to the $15.8 million, one-year contracts Friday, were among 20 players given the offers November 6.
Estrada emerged as a solid starter in 2015 for a Toronto club that reached the American League Championship Series. He went 12-8 and ranked fifth in the AL with a 3.13 ERA and also experienced a strong postseason. Well… that isn’t necessarily a problem, but you can bet Boras will be looking for a big pay increase over the $4.75 million Chen made in 2015. Throughout his career, his 162-game average is a. 258 average with 21 homers and 79 RBIs.
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Mike Napoli and Nelson Cruz both declined such offers from the Rangers in the past, and they have one outstanding to starting pitcher Yovani Gallardo that must be decided upon by Friday afternoon.
