Branyan Wants Multi-Year Deal
Jim Street checks in with a quote from Russ Branyan, who is willing to hit the free agent market in pursuit of a multi-year contract.
“I’m not a bad guy, not a selfish guy,” he said from his offseason home. “I don’t know if there is a two- or three-year deal out there for me, but I would like to have more than a one-year deal. I don’t want another one-and-done [contract].”
Wanting security doesn’t make Branyan selfish or a bad guy. But he’s not getting it. He turns 34 in a month and he has a herniated disc in his back that caused him to miss the last two months of the season. Nobody is guaranteeing him any substantial money in 2011. He can look for a two or three year deal, but he won’t find one. Not in this market, not with his back. He also added:
“My agent [Danny Lozano] said he’s confident that we will get something done with Seattle,” Branyan said. “He also told me not to take the [one-year offer] personally. It’s just part of the negotiating process. He knows and the Mariners know I would take less to play there than somewhere else. All I want is to be treated fairly.”
I’d still be fairly confident that the M’s and Branyan will work something out too, but if he’s really dead set on getting more than one year, it’s going to take a while. He’s going to have to hit the market, feel the cold sting of rejection, and realize that the M’s were being fair. He’s just too risky to give a mutli-year deal too.
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Do you think we will see a one year deal with a player or club option for 2011?
A player option is the same thing as a guaranteed two year deal in terms of risk (plus, lower reward), so there’s no chance of that, no.
One year and a club option/buyout is the logical compromise point. But Branyan might not take that until he’s been shot down by every other club in free agency.
I think they’ll compromise. I think it will be an incentive laden deal with a team or mutual option for 2011. If he preforms well and is healthy he’ll get a second year or can try free agency again.
If he didn’t miss so much time at the end of the year and kept up some production he would definitely earn a 2 year deal. The time he was injured really hurt him in contract negotiations. If I remember correctly he said something earlier in the year that he felt he owed the M’s something for giving him the opportunity to play everyday. Maybe those feel good vibes are still around and he’ll take a one year deal and we can see if he can hit like that again.
What about a vesting option for the 2nd year based on plate appearances? 2nd year vests after 450 PAs or something like that.
[deleted, stupidity]
I would rather have Nick Johnson than Branyan. I like Branyan but the M’s should not overpay to keep him or give him a second year.
Hey Dave, what about a John Bowker as a option in some capacity at 1st? Thanks.
…And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what you’d call a wild overreaction. I hope that was sarcasm.
So anyway, no one thinks there’s any chance that some power-starved team offers him two years at a reduced rate?
I don’t see anything wrong with any of this. The agent probably asked for multi-year…the M’s said no…the agent said they’d have to look elsewhere. That’s how negotiations work.
I think Branyan was sincere when he said he’d rather play here. And that’s what will happen unless some other team thinks he’s worth more years. If Dave is right and it comes to competing single year options, then he’s here again.
And on the topic of Branyan, can anyone remember anyone ever swinging that hard with such an uppercut? No wonder the disc slipped.
Hey Dave, Is Bavasi working for anyone? Maybe Branyan’s agent can give him a call…
Why not offer like $11/3 years if he wants years so much?
I like Branyan’s forward honesty. As has been stated before, Jack Z gave him a chance at a full time job, and Branyan knows that. I think this is just standard negotiating. I don’t think we will be surprised by anything too crazy.
At most, an incentive based club option for a second year would likely make both sides happy.
If you’d be willing to have a 37-year-old Branyan on your team. I’m not saying I’m against it, but that may not be the best idea.
“I’m not a bad guy” and “my agent said he’s confident” are just polite ways of saying “I asked for what I want, was politely told no, and now we’re working out a nice one-year deal.”
Not at 1B – would love to see Carp on the team before then.
However, Russ might be a decent option for DH at that point. But there is still no way you give him more than a one year/plus option at this time.
In Dave’s 2010 off-season plan, he had Branyan down for 1 year, $4 million.
My thought too. PA based vesting would give him the appearance of a multi-year deal with the M’s having protection if his back completely gives out.
Even if it’s unrealistic in this market, his agent wouldn’t be representing him well if he didn’t ask. After all, if there is a greater fool out there, the only way to find out is to ask.
Let me play Z for a minute:
Z: We’d like to offer you a 1 year contract at $4 Million.
Branyan: I want a multi-year deal.
Z: We’d like to offer you a 2 year contract at $2 Million.
Seems fair!
OK, see, this is why everybody else should do what the NFL does. Let Branyan sign a series of one-year contracts. That way he has to make the team every year or there’s no payday but he still has more than the one-and-done contract. Reading his quotes, I had flashbacks to Bret Boone’s contract negotiations after 2001. Gillick never went beyond three years, Boone wanted four. So he got four….and promptly fell off a cliff during the fourth year. Signing Branyan to a one-year deal is the best thing for everybody. He must be forgetting that the Mariners were the first team in his career that allowed him to be anything other than a platoon player. (Remember, originally he was going to split time with Chris Shelton at first base.) He responded very well but only because Seattle gave him a chance. I think he kinda, kinda, owes the M’s the same kind of consideration.
Wilson also turned down the M’s offer today, will this be touched on soon as well?
As far as Branyan…who cares? He’ll just have to find out the hard way how little value he has in a multi year contract. He’ll be back! Personally I’d rather have Delgado and Carp spliting time at 1B/DH.
“After all, if there’s a greater fool out there the only way to know is to ask.”
“Mr. Branyan, there’s a Mr. Bavasi from Cincinnati holding for you on line one.”
All baseball contracts are guaranteed. You cannot have a series of one year contracts that the club can walk away from like in football.
I hope he finds a multi year deal. Or if he comes back he gets a nice 1 year with a club option. One thing he has done right if you ask me is say, yes I’ll play for a little less in Seattle. Presumably because the M’s gave him a chance at what has to have been a life long dream. At worst he gave us a really good season.
You can have them, it’s just really uncommon.
I’m not saying that’s the world IS, I’m just saying that baseball, basketball, fuuutttbbaaalll (soccer) all SHOULD operate that way, with a series of one-year contracts for iffy players.
That’s a good point. But I think a better point is this; Most all baseball contracts like this are guaranteed. Are you comfortable paying him $11 million for, say, 6 weeks?
Remember, he has a herniated disc. That puts his chances of suffering a career ending injury at a much higher level than most other players. It’s all about risk/reward. Frankly, the risk is way too high for anything more than a 1 year deal with him.
I am not sure the NFL is the be-all, end-all of treating players equitably, considering how many drafter rookies turn out to be highly-paid busts, and how many players end up with mangled bodies and concussion-related brain damage.
Also, it’s not like we should expect the owners to give us any of that money they save on player contracts back in lower seat prices, cheaper beer, and so on. Consider that for some teams, there’s already an incentive to suck, be cheap with your players, and cash the revenue-sharing checks. Do we really want to create more incentives for owners to field AAA teams in MLB? We had that in spades in the 1890s (the Cleveland Spiders) and the 1950s (the Kansas City A’s), and we have enough of it today in teams like the Marlins. I think we want to think this through a bit more.
Agreed. Then again, there’s always this guy who did alright after his surgery (also note the torque hitting a baseball 400+ > throwing a baseball 100+).
So you are citing the exception rather than the rule to rebut my argument? I’m not sure I can buy into that. Also, RJ’s fastball was 97-98 for most of those years. And actually his slider was (and still is) his best pitch.
There are vast differences between the two sports, the most salient of which is that not-so-old baseball players don’t go ga-ga because they played baseball in their youth, while not-so-old football players do.
The second, obvious, difference is the salary cap. The NFL has one, MLB doesn’t. Some teams can take stupid chances signing players, knowing they can just eat the salary, cut them, and buy someone else. No other league in North America allows this.
But to stay on-topic, I like the idea of one year for RB with a team option for a second year, that second year to be shaped, perhaps, by first-year performance (minimum AB, and so on).
No one thinks that Branyon can get a multi-year deal? You forget, there is a team in the MLB called the Royals, and they love to give big deals to guys who have moved through the M’s. I could see him landing in KC for something like 20 million over 3 years. And you all know after reading that statment just how dumb but true it sounds.
As a player who hasn’t really seen his payday yet I think Branyan has a responsibility to get the best contract he can this season. Yes he’s an aging veteran, but he’s not like Griffey, Thome, and Delgado in the sense that he’s never had a huge contract. Those guys have made more in one season than Branyan has made in his entire career. I hope things can work out for both parties.
The key word here is “fair.” Branyan was a 2.8 WAR in 2009, worth $12.6M according to Fangraphs, even with his time on the DL. The Ms made an $11M profit off his performance. They can give him $5 a year for 2 years and still have a profit if he gets hit by a meteorite when he stands in the box on the first day of the next season.
Branyan did good last year because he realized he wasn’t seeing the ball well previously and he found and undertook an eye conditioning program that improved his visual acuity. He does an eye routine every day to stay sharp. Big but not dumb, Russell wanted to find out why he was having back problems. Working with a physical therapist he found out that although he was big and strong he had weak hip muscles, which caused too much stress on his back. He is on a therapy routine to strengthen his hip muscles and is feeling better than ever. He will be good to go next year. I wasn’t a big fan of his until recently, now I think he deserves a two year deal, has earned it and it is the fair thing to do. He has a much stronger case to return than Junior, which I’m not in favour of, but as The Safe is the house he built he’s earned the right to another year there if he chooses to do so. That too is the fair thing to do. That’s the kind of thing that make the Ms better than the Yankees.
That’s a wonderful sentiment, but I think on further reflection you’ll realize how badly it goes wrong. Teams can’t be built and run that way.
By the way, according to today’s story from Larry Stone, the Mariners’ offer did include an option year. So it would seem like in order to compromise further, they might need to make it a vesting option.
Who would be the better player for the M’s in 2010..Branyan or Overbay?
Well, with 1 big exception in baseball:
The year-to-year contracts that arbitration-eligible players get every year(whether in arbitration or through direct negotiation with team, avoiding arbitration) are NOT guaranteed.
Teams can release players under such contracts every spring with either 30 or 45 days termination pay–the Jays did it to OF Reed Johnson in early 2008, IIRC(and then the Cubs signed him.)
Anyway, I still hold out hope for Branyan coming to terms with the M’s on a one year deal with an option for a second year–it beats trading for Lyle Overbay, as per the current rumors.
WOAH!! Thanks for your service Russel, best of luck with your future endeavors, etc….