Carl Crawford Is Lucky Cliff Floyd Is Not His Agent
Carl Crawford, Cliff Floyd February 26th. 2010, 3:16pm
Cliff Floydwent on SIRIUS/XM’s “MLB Home Plate” with Jim Duquette today and was asked about Carl Crawford’s future with the Rays…
“Well, my feeling is I think he will outprice himself in Tampa. Of course, it’s a win-win for CC. My advice to him would be to stay with Tampa because it makes him a ten-five guy and then he can pretty much pick anywhere he wants to go as opposed to being a free agent. But he’s a smart young man and I think the biggest thing he’s got going for himself is the game has changed right into his corner. Defense and stolen bases and batting average and things like that are definitely on his side. So he’s in a win-win. Hopefully he stays healthy and he makes the right decision. I think his decision will probably be that he outprices himself and becomes a free agent. And, of course, the Steinbrenners in New York will be banging at the door to get him.”
If Crawford re-signs with the Rays after the season, he would reach 10-and-5 status* sometime in 2012. Certainly this is good position to be in, but how is that any better than being a free agent? It’s not.
In both cases the players can pick his new club, but as a 10-and-5 he does not have the right to renegotiate his deal and he only gets to pick his new club if the current club decides they want to trade him. And once he is traded he would lose his 10-and-5 status just as he would signing with another team as a free agent. So why would Crawford stick with the Rays just so that he can have 10-and-5 status? The fact is, he wouldn’t.
you would think after playing for 7 teams in 17 years, that Floyd would have this free agency thing figured out.
* 10-and-5 players have at least 10 years of experience and at least the last 5 years with the same team. These players have the right to approve or reject any trade.
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Yeah, the only benefit I saw was that he gets to avoid being with the Royals or Nationals or some other miserable team for half a season if it came to that. But I dunno, if I were a spry 28 year old who was about to hit the New York Lottery, I think I could handle 60-70 games with a crappy team if I had to.
CC is used to being on crappy teams …………Now he’s on a good team that won’t pay him what he is worth!
Such is life/baseball…but things happen…lets wait…
I guess it is worth noting that there might be an advantage. If the goal of CC is to NOT be traded in the next 5-6 years, then being a 10-and-5 would be good. But to do that he would have to accept a 5-year, $60M deal with the Rays over a 7-year, $100M deal with the Yankees, Giants, Dodgers or Red Sox. Is that worth $40M? I wouldnt think so.
And if he does sign a $100M contract the chances he is traded in the first 5 years are small anyway. How many teams are going to want to take on all the money that is going to be left on the deal? There might be 3 or 4 teams. So in a way, signing a $100M deal is like getting a limited no-trade deal anyway and it will be for 7 years instead of 5.
Not to mention he could negotiate a no-trade clause into his free agent contract if it is so important.
Cliff Floyd is not a rocket surgeon
The Rays gamble is that CC gets hurt for some stretch of 2010 and they get a free peak at the Jennings show and then can gain cover when CC walks or, if his season is truly injury-marred, they are able to re-up him at a steep discount.
I think I’m the biggest CC fan on this site and I’ll be so sad to see him go. But there is no doubt they cannot pay what the Yankees can pay and the Yankees see an intra-division signing as a double shot. I just hope the Rays don’t “pull a Kazmir” and trade him if they are only 3.5 out on 9/1/10.
I don’t want to gve Floyd too much credit, but the only thing I can think of is that Floyd feels the union would pressure CC to take the most money period. So he’d have to sign with NY or possibly Boston, SF or LA. Maybe he wants to go to Houston or I dunno, some team that will pay a lot more than Tampa Bay, but enough less than NY et al. I know I’m reaching.
I think the Rays should be able to get a deal done for CC. Dez Jenn. is a center fielder, send BJ and his 5 mill. packing, let Aybar play first, goodbye to Pena, his 10 mill and 3K’s/9inn, obviously Burrell isn’t getting 9 mill next year. Rays need 5mill/yr more to sign CC and those three contracts will take 24 million off the books. Dan Wheeler and Rafael Soriano would be another 11 million off the books if Rays let them go, which would be easy to do if they brought up any of there prospect starters as relievers (hellickson).
Still praying for Matt Joyce as the EVERYDAY right fielder…dude can rake.
There’s money for Carl if they WANT to pay him…but now they have put themselves in a position of having to bid on him at end of year..
If they win the division or WS and he is MVP on the Rays…. Yankees/Red Sox will price Rays out…then the Rays have to play against him…Jennings won’t make up for that! They (Rays) should have made a offer NOW to see where they are at for signing him..now the ball is in CC’s corner….He (agent) now is in control!