Moustakas back to Royals

[Centerfield]

One year deal plus a mutual option. 5.5 base with about $2 million in incentives. An absolute steal.

Gotta figure the draft pick compensation played a huge factor.

[nymr83]

yeah, the draft pick compensation basically fucks the 2% or so of players who are good enough to get offered the contract that triggers it by the original team but aren't good enough to make other teams think "who fucking cares about draft picks, i signed THIS guy"

hopefully a condition of the new deal is "you can't use that shit on me again"

[seawolf17]

Wow. That's backup middle infielder money.

[smg58]

I think it's written into the CBA that you can only be offered it once, or perhaps that you can't be offered it again after you've accepted it once. And the way for these borderline players to discourage teams from making the QO is to accept it when it's offered. I do think players should insist on more time to read the market before accepting or rejecting it, at the very least. I'm guessing that both he and Lance Lynn would have simply grabbed it had they known sooner what the market would be like.

[A Boy Named Seo]

Jeez, how psyched are the Royals right now?

[Edgy MD]

I think the Mets got the better guy, though.

And if thinking doesn't work, I'm going to hope they did.

[Centerfield]

Moustakas is a better hitter than Frazier, and costs less.

Would you have given up a 2nd rounder for 1 year of the Moose?

[Benjamin Grimm]

smg58 wrote: I think it's written into the CBA that you can only be offered it once, or perhaps that you can't be offered it again after you've accepted it once.

You can only be offered it once. So Moustakas is immune to any future QO.

Maybe the wise thing to do in many cases is to accept the QO when you get it and then try free agency again next year. It would be like a revival of sorts of the "option year" that players used to have to play through before becoming a free agent.

[Ceetar]

Centerfield wrote: Moustakas is a better hitter than Frazier, and costs less. Would you have given up a 2nd rounder for 1 year of the Moose?

Unless you think Frazier's growth in terms of BB% is a fluke, I'd take Frazier's defense and OBP over Moustakas' extra power every single time.

[A Boy Named Seo]

Ceetar wrote: Centerfield wrote: Moustakas is a better hitter than Frazier, and costs less. Would you have given up a 2nd rounder for 1 year of the Moose? Unless you think Frazier's growth in terms of BB% is a fluke, I'd take Frazier's defense and OBP over Moustakas' extra power every single time.

I don't know, man, it might be a fluke, .302 and .309 in 2016 and '15 respectively. Given Moustakas is younger and cheaper, if we knew everything we know today, I'd prob take Moose.

[Ceetar]

A Boy Named Seo wrote: Ceetar wrote: Centerfield wrote: Moustakas is a better hitter than Frazier, and costs less. Would you have given up a 2nd rounder for 1 year of the Moose? Unless you think Frazier's growth in terms of BB% is a fluke, I'd take Frazier's defense and OBP over Moustakas' extra power every single time. I don't know, man, it might be a fluke, .302 and .309 in 2016 and '15 respectively. Given Moustakas is younger and cheaper, if we knew everything we know today, I'd prob take Moose.

I mean, maybe? I get that argument, but I tend to believe in it. It happened when he left the Reds, so I think that lends credence to the 'learned something' idea. And don't sleep on that defense. That's good defense!

Also, I mean, if the Mets were involved suddenly there are two teams interested in Moustakas and while maybe it doesn't create a bidding war necessarily, it might raise the cost to get him.

[Centerfield]

Or, put another way, would you have preferred signing both Frazier and Moustakas, move Frazier to 1B and cut Gonzalez?

I don't know. It's crazy to see how cheap all these guys are going. Carlos Gonzalez is about to sign a bargain-basement deal too. If we are going reclamation projects, I wouldn't have minded giving him a try. Move Bruce to 1B.

[metirish]

Fuck the Royals and the Moose they rode in on ...anyway, he was hoping for a large multiyear deal?

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I just love the Royals got Doodoo, though. He's gonna make the AL Central his bitch.

[Edgy MD]

Fangraphs took a deep dive in trying to figure out what happened to the Moussaka market. The fact that they never mention the Mets among the third-baseman shoppers (they're still a big league club, right?) and they never really invoke the possibility that something collusive is afoot kind of hurts the article. But in the second half, they get into the his 2016 injury and his subsequent loss of a step — which they see as meaningfully more than a step.

Now that all the teams are armed with the same data, his dropoff in defense and baserunning skills could have certainly damaged his marketability, especially among teams that don't have a DH for him to slide to. At the same time, they acknowledge that (a) a year of defensive stats are hard to project from, and ( he could get some of that back a further year removed from his surgery.

It's one thing to take $6.5 mill after turning down $17.5 mill. It's even more to take if from the same team you turned down. That's got to be a redfaced return for him.

[Guest 41Forever]

If you believe Metsblog, the team did offer him a deal:

Free-agent 3B Mike Moustakas has reportedly agreed to a one-year, $6.5 million deal with the Royals, despite rejecting a one-year, $17 million qualifying offer in October and using most of this winter asking for a $100 million contract. The Mets made an offer to Moustakas in late January worth more than he ended getting from the Royals, according to multiple MLB insiders. At that time, I heard only the Mets, Royals and Braves were in contention to sign him. My hunch is the Mets offered the same the two-year, $17 million deal they ended up giving to Todd Frazier, because Frazier signed with the Mets less than two weeks later. In the end, after months of moaning and groaning by fans and media (myself included) about spending and payroll because reports indicated ownership planned to slash the team's budget, Mets GM Sandy Alderson actually spent enough money to have nearly the same payroll total he had last season.

[Edgy MD]

Neil Walker oughta be damn glad he got $17.2 million from the Mets last year, because it sure looks like he's getting bupkis this season.

[Centerfield]

We should sign him. Move Frazier to 1B or Cabrera to the bench.

[Guest 41Forever]

Centerfield wrote: We should sign him. Move Frazier to 1B or Cabrera to the bench.

Does that also mean cutting Gonzalez and telling Dom Smith he's not making the team for two years?

[seawolf17]

41Forever wrote: Centerfield wrote: We should sign him. Move Frazier to 1B or Cabrera to the bench. Does that also mean cutting Gonzalez and telling Dom Smith he's not making the team for two years?

No, that means you just trade Dom Smith for Clayton Kershaw. Duh.

[Guest 41Forever]

seawolf17 wrote: 41Forever wrote: Centerfield wrote: We should sign him. Move Frazier to 1B or Cabrera to the bench. Does that also mean cutting Gonzalez and telling Dom Smith he's not making the team for two years? No, that means you just trade Dom Smith for Clayton Kershaw. Duh.

Ah, the Dodgers aren't stupid. They'll at least want Hansel Robles thrown in to make that deal. Maybe Montero, too.

[seawolf17]

41Forever wrote: 41Forever wrote: Centerfield wrote: We should sign him. Move Frazier to 1B or Cabrera to the bench. Does that also mean cutting Gonzalez and telling Dom Smith he's not making the team for two years? No, that means you just trade Dom Smith for Clayton Kershaw. Duh. Ah, the Dodgers aren't stupid. They'll at least want Hansel Robles thrown in to make that deal. Maybe Montero, too.

Okay, FINE.

(You know that *if* that deal happened, Montero would go 28-2 and win the Cy Young.)

[Edgy MD]

As Moustakas returned to the Royals, they lost last season's rookie star (and future Met) Jorge Bonifacio for half the season to a drug suspension.