DOTW 4/15/'14: Medlen & Beachy Problems

[Heyward]

Hard to say.

Payroll is all but certainly going up. How high, is anyones guess but its more north than south.

Meds would probably get non-tendered unfortunately, maybe sign him to a 1-year deal and see if he can stick in the pen but i figure he wants to start.

Beachy should get non-tendered.

I'd try to re-sign Santana if he has a good year, will be interesting to see what happens there.

[MadduxFanII]

Is it still possible to non-tender a player and then re-sign him to a lower salary? I feel like forbidding that practice was discussed during one of the CBA negotiations, but it's hard to keep track of everything that's changed with arbitration over the years.

Assuming that's still possible, Medlen would seem to be a good candidate for it. I can't see us guaranteeing more than five million to Medlen coming off Tommy John, but I also don't think we want to lose him; he's a quality pitcher and a good guy, and you want to keep him around. He'll be a 29-year-old with a career 135 ERA+ this time next year, and non-tendering him is a good way to look really, really foolish. On the other hand, I don't know how anxious Medlen is going to be to test out the free agent market in his circumstances. A one-year prove it contract at a relatively low base salary and significant incentives with an organization he's comfortable with would seem a good option for him.

[nsacpi]

opening payroll was 112M this year including 14M for Santana. So 98M ex Santana. Up from 90-95M in recent years. I assume there was some money set aside before the Santana signing for mid-season moves. So our budget this year was in the 100-105M range. We blew through it when Liberty approved the approach to Santana. But I think 100-105 is the baseline. It will go up some next year, but incrementally. I think a reasonable guess would be 105-110 for 2015. Probably closer to 105M, not all of which will be reflected in opening day payroll.

[nsacpi]

Is it still possible to non-tender a player and then re-sign him to a lower salary?

Yes.

[nsacpi]

On the other hand, I don't know how anxious Medlen is going to be to test out the free agent market in his circumstances.

Medlen loves playing in Atlanta. As much as Tim Hudson did. The point being he's probably willing to leave some moulah on the table to stay here but not a whole lot. I will repeat what I said at the outset, which is that the market for Medlen if he is non-tendered and becomes a free agent will be very similar to the market for Floyd this past off-season. Teams will check on how his rehab is going just like we and some other teams checked on Floyd. If the progress is good he will get a similar contract. One-year, lots of incentives, about 4M guaranteed.

[rico43]

Medlen loves playing in Atlanta. As much as Tim Hudson did. The point being he's probably willing to leave some moulah on the table to stay here but not a whole lot. I will repeat what I said at the outset, which is that the market for Medlen if he is non-tendered and becomes a free agent will be very similar to the market for Floyd this past off-season. Teams will check on how his rehab is going just like we and some other teams checked on Floyd. If the progress is good he will get a similar contract. One-year, lots of incentives, about 4M guaranteed.

I also think the interest in O'Flaherty is a good comparison. He got a two-year deal from Oakland even though he's beginning 2014 on the 60-day DL.