Contract extensions are a rare thing in Yankee-land. Despite that, we heard a very vague rumor about the Yankees looking into extending catcher Russell Martin. Since I’m generally a wimp and like to test the waters first, I asked people on Twitter last night to give their opinions on what they’d offer Martin in a contract. Here are the results. The order is that in which I received replies from various places on the Internet.
3 years, $26M + a club option/$2M buyout
3 years, $18-20M
2 years, $20M; $3M Buyout
3 years, $22M; mutual fourth year option, $800K buyout
2 years, $11.5M; $6.5M team option, $500K buyout
2 years, $20M
2 years, $13M
3 years, $24M (at least three people suggested this)
2 years, $18M
2 years, $12M w/incentives
3 years, $18M w/incentives
3 years, $30M; $9M option
4 years, $28M; club option
Average: 2.61 years, $20.12M
After all that, let’s weigh the pros and cons of extending Martin.
PROS:
–Cost isn’t out of control. Even the highest projections here have him making no more than $10M.
–He’s still a good hitting catcher, even if he’s not a tremendous hitter compared to the rest of the league.
–He adds defensive value. This is two-fold, as it would allow the potential negative defensive impact from Jesus Montero to be minimized.
CONS:
Well, there’s really only one, and it’s big: He’s a catcher and catchers tend to break easily. We’ve already seen Martin have dips in production and health after catching a lot in L.A. and that could very easily repeat itself in 2012 and beyond.
Would I offer Martin a contract extension? Probably not, but it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. If I were in the mood to offer him a contract extension now (I’m not; I’d rather just pay his arbitration raise this year and reevaluate at this time in 2012), I’d go with a 2 year deal worth $13.5M ($6.75M AAV) with a team option for a third year valued at $7M with a $950K buyout. What say you, commenters?
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
10 Responses to Extending Russell Martin
Leave a Reply
TIQ IQ
I like your suggestion most Matt, as there is no way I give Martin a 3 year deal. I’d even be hesitant to give him $10 million, which isn’t too far off from the $13 million Posada was getting towards the end of his career. And even though he brings plus defense, IMO martin’s bat isn’t even close to Posada’s. $6-7 million sounds about right to me.
“IMO martin’s bat isn’t even close to Posada’s.”
You’re right, Martin’s bat isn’t what Posada’s once was, but his defense is by far better than Posada ever was. His defensive value behind the plate, combined with the power he shows while batting is enough to warrant 10 million per year.
I’m not saying extend him now, but I get a little tired of people being so consumed with how a catcher hits. It’s at the point where defense from the catcher position has become completely trivialized by the fan, as if it simply doesn’t matter. The most important thing for a catcher is, always has been, and always will be defense. If one can catch that’s a great plus, but defense should be the first question asked when evaluating a catcher. It’s why Montero will never be a long term answer behind the plate, and why the Yankees are in no hurry to give him a massive load as a catcher.
I agree with you Chris, but until we can accurately put a value on how much defense is worth for catchers (we are getting closer), it’s hard for me to say his defense makes up for the gap in hitting. Maybe I need to get with the times, but I still feel if you are paying a guy $10 million, he better be well above average with the bat. Martin showed glimpses of that, but for a good portion of the season he was almost an automatic out (although not at Cervelli levels).
Posada was a near HOF hitter and didn’t completely embarrass himself behind the plate, so I was okay with his high salary. I’d like to see more consistency from Russ.
As with everything else, extending Martin needs to be seen in context of $189 mill payroll cap in 2014. Yanks could save by simply going with Romine as starting catcher. On the other hand, if they sign Martin, they could make Romine available in trade, which could help ease payroll concerns in another area — like the outfield, for example.
Key question: how does Romine project, as compared with Martin.
Also, just to throw in my two cents on prior post, I believe Yanks may have to choose between re-signing Cano and Grandy. It will be hard to re-sign both, while adding a quality starting pitcher at some point, and keeping below the self-imposed cap.
I imagine most would say it’s a no-brainer to choose Cano over Grandy. Problem, though, is that Boras will be looking for Pujols-type deal of nine or ten years. And second basemen tend to break down relatively early. Can’t see giving even the valuable Cano anything more than six or seven years at that point.
Finally, this. Yanks can meet target if they have seven or more homegrown youngsters on rosters. They can also add to young talent base by trading one or more of the guys they may not re-sign after 2013. That would include Cano, Grandy, Joba and Hughes.
Cash will have to use all his smarts to trim payroill while keeping team on top, but I think theoretically at least it can be done.
This is exactly why the Yankees need to start relying more on their farm system. Luckily they happen to have their most stacked farm system of (my) recent memory. I have heard that Romine might develop into a Kurt Suzuki or even Russell Martin ha. Signing Martin “past his prime” doesn’t hurt like it would signing another position player past their prime because Martin wouldn’t command a huge salary and would still have use. The Yankees have many young catchers that could use a mentor like Martin who is excellent at calling games and defensively. Having him around, even if he is past his prime would help ease the bumps and bruises of a young catcher.
As for the resigning Granderson vs Cano debate I would be more in favor of resigning Cano for several reasons. In the next 3 or 4 years ARod will need to be shifted to full time DH duty. Cano has a strong enough arm to take over for him at 3rd and 2nd baseman are easier to replace than good 3rd baseman. Also with Grandson, he doesn’t get good reads on the ball in the outfield but has the speed to make up for it. When his speed declines he might not be able to get away with that. If Gardner is still on the team he can slide over to CF. Also the Yankees have legit prospects in the minors who play CF like Slade Heathcott and Mason Williams. The Yankee should sign Jorge Soler (reports say he would have been a top 5 pick in this years draft) who is 19 he could be an in house replacement when they decide to trade Granderson towards the end of his contract. The Yankees have no one on their roster who can approximate what Cano does. Oh and I would like to see a home grown player spend his entire career in pinstripes so there’s a little emotional motivation behind it too.
There is a fly in the ointment here though. If the Yankees do indeed intend to get to the $189MM luxury tax threshold for the 2014 they can ill afford to even offer Martin a 2 year extension that takes him into the 2014 season and pays him roughly $7MM plus. That’s a position that if Romine is ready he needs to fill in 2014 (assuming Montero isn’t the catching option for the Yankees). I’m all for going year to year with Martin and if that’s not in the cards for the 2013 season the Yankees need to look for a short term 1 year replacement until either Romine or Montero are ready to catch. After all what’s the sense of having catching prospect if the Yankees are reluctant to have them catch or trade them for another need. Something has to give.
I’m with you. Go year to year with him after this season, depending on payroll flexibility. With just a bit of luck, the catching duo come 2013 will be Romine/Montero. And you continue to have options following closely behind in the minors.
Here is the problem with not extending, which is also what the Cardinals learned the hard way with Pujols:
-You want to pay a player for his good years, not his bad ones.
-Some teams are more willing to pay for a player’s bad years than others. So you might want 3 good years, but someone else wants to pay for 3 good and 3 bad.
-Players want revenue certainty and “respect”.
-To optimize your relationship with a player, the best thing you can do is offer him a contract that ends when his good years are up. To do that you’re going to have to offer an extension sooner, rather than later.
In the Martin case, we either get 1 good year of Martin and lose another 1-2 good years when he signs a 5 year deal w. a dumb GM, or we can extend him now for exactly as long as we think he’ll hold up, then let him go at the end of it.
(This ties into Pujols in the sense that if the Cardinals only wanted him until he was 35, they should have given him an extension much earlier that only ran through that age. Then they could have signed a second contract that better approximated his end of career value).
I can’t see the Yankees entrusting a very important position like catcher to someone with defensive liabilities like Montero and a rookie catcher like Romine. The highest we can hope for with Romine is that he develops into a Russell Martin type player.
For this year, why extend Martin at all? The Yankees only have him because of health issues, let him prove again that he can handle a year behind the plate without getting hurt. That and his home run/fly ball rate was at an obscene career high for him. Odds are he wont repeat that again. Most signs actually point to Martin declining as an offensive player. If he stays healthy all year that would allow the Yankees to include Romine in a package deal since they’d essentially be set at catcher, even if Martin continues to decline because Montero would be caddying for him. He could try and teach Montero (or JR Murphy, or Gary Sanchez) how to call a game and play good defense. I think a 3 year deal would be something everyone can agree on.