It's a good question why the players accepted it. I guess they're feeling pretty fat and happy the way things are and didn't want to kill the golden goose.
You could e-mail Alex Speier about it. I think he knows the tax rules as well as anybody. I've e-mailed him a couple of times and he's answered me.
alex.speier@globe.com
The Dodgers trade was a piece of extreme luck that came about because of the Dodgers' change in ownership. Full credit to Henry and Lucchino for seizing on the opportunity.
If the details of the story are accurate, Cherington's role in the transaction basically boiled down to getting us Rubby de la Rosa and Allen Webster, and doing the administrative work.
"Chemistry" and "identity" are shaky concepts to be sure. I believe that there are real psychological factors like motivation and confidence, but trying to measure any of it is voodoo science.
It's notable, though, that the Guardians were able to succeed in spite of losing their #2 and #3 starters to injuries. It might have been harder for them if they had lost Andrew Miller instead.
Ben rolled the dice big time with that 2015 pitching staff. He bet upside and he got downside. If he had done a better job with the bullpen we might have been OK.
A guy like Sean O'Sullivan can be of use. O'Sullivan's overall numbers were horrible, but we won all 4 of his starts. He was at least able to get through about 5 innings giving up 3-4 runs. If the offense scores some runs and the bullpen holds you can win those games. Much less than ideal but much better than nothing.
Understood. I was not a Ben hater but I was certainly disappointed with the 2015 season in particular and what he did with the pitching staff.
And even though the team was in a favorable position after 2015 one could still question how much of that was attributable to Ben and how much was attributable to Theo Epstein and John Henry. Ben certainly benefitted from having a fat budget to work with. Not many teams could afford to invest 130+ million dollars in guys like Castillo and Moncada who had never played major league ball.
Yes, the debate about Ben could (and probably will) go on forever...
Another point about Dempster is that he had also struggled with Texas the year before after being traded from the Cubs. In fact, if you look at his career breakdown by teams, the only place he really thrived was with the Cubs.
You're probably right about Cabrera but Verlander is a good bet to keep returning value over the next 3 years.
I know their salaries are crazy but we're talking about 2 of the best players in baseball. The Tigers could probably trade Verlander for something decent if they really wanted to.
I certainly get your point, but I don't see contracts like these as real disasters because the players are producing. It's the ones where you're paying guys a lot for nothing that are the real killers IMO.
Now you're changing the argument. DD didn't trade away Betts, Bogaerts or Bradley. He deserves some credit for that. He was almost certainly asked for these guys when talking to other teams about starting pitchers.