Baseball Musings: With-Drew

November 09, 2006

With-Drew

J.D. Drew opted out of the remaining three of his contract with the Dodgers:

Colletti said he was told Monday by Scott Boras, Drew's agent, that this move was a possibility. Then, Colletti said, he awoke Thursday to find a message on his cell phone from Boras giving him the news, which he received officially by fax in the afternoon.
"You learn in this business never to be surprised," Colletti said. "I'm surprised how it came down. Everything we had heard, everything that had been written led us to believe the player loved being here."

Drew, who turns 31 this month, hit .283 with 20 homers and 100 RBI last season -- his second with the Dodgers. He signed a five-year, $55 million contract Dec. 23, 2004, and had been guaranteed $33 million over the next three years with Los Angeles.

I didn't realize there were clauses in contracts that allowed a player to opt out. Does anyone know if this is standard language? Colletti appears to be very upset.

While Colletti refused to say he was angry, his feelings came through during a 30-minute conference call.
"I hang onto my feelings," Colletti said. "You try to use some diplomacy right now."

But the GM also said: "I know J.D. is a spiritual guy and a man of his word. I guess he changed his word. You learn never to be surprised when you're dealing in this arena. People change their minds. People change their word. They move on."

Colletti said Boras never asked for Drew's contract to be re-negotiated. The contract called for Drew to earn $11 million in each of the next three years. Paul DePodesta was the Dodgers' GM when Drew signed with the team.

Asked about his relationship with Boras, Colletti replied: "Scott does a real good job of what he does. I've known Scott for a long time. All I'll say is he does a really good job of what he does."

It's apparent that the market changed since Drew signed that five year contract. With Soriano looking to make over $15 million a year, Boras realizes the market for Drew might be even better. Drew, after all, owns a career OBA 30 points higher than Soriano's best single season mark. The downside of J.D., of course, is his health. But this certainly changes the free agent landscape and puts the Dodgers in a big offensive hole.

Update: Red Sox bloggers at Firebrand of the American League already want Drew in Boston. I wonder if there's any chance of him winding up in Philadelphia? That would be a laugh.

Posted by David Pinto at 10:18 PM | Free Agents | TrackBack (0)

Comments

"I didn't realize there were clauses in contracts that allowed a player to opt out."

How about Aramis?

Posted by: YumYum at November 9, 2006 10:40 PM

it was a special provision in drew's contract. i don't remember the details, but he could opt out after a certain point. very shrewd on boras's part to get that in there. i remember thinking that it was a bad move for dodgers. if drew got hurt real bad, they were still going to be on the hook, but if the market got inflated again (like this year), he could get himself a big new contract.

Posted by: amos at November 9, 2006 10:56 PM

Has Drew misread the Dodgers - did he expect the Dodgers to respond as the Cubs did with Ramirez?

Posted by: Neil H at November 9, 2006 11:01 PM

It isn't standard language but several players have had similar options. A-Rod for example can opt to be a free agent after next year.

Teams are silly to allow these provisions. If the player is average he can choose to hang with the original deal. If the market changes or the player plays much better he can tear up the contract. Sounds pretty one sided.

Personally, I think whichever team signs Drew (and it ain't gonna be Philly) is going to regret the decision. He could pull a Molitor and be a frequently injured guy who becomes durable in his 30's but I doubt it.

Posted by: LargeBill at November 10, 2006 12:01 AM

I remember specifically when he signed the contract that the articles I read mentioned the clause. I thought it was a little foolish at the time, but the dodgers, and maybe more specifically, paul deposdesta, were desperate for a marquis FA and Scott Boras, smartly, took advantage of that.

That being said, I wouldnt pay Drew a penny over what he was making, in fact I probably wouldnt pay him anywhere over 8 a year. I don't know what sort of research is being done in the area of player injury but it seems to me that paying a guy buco bucks for minimal playing time is downright idiotic.

As a sox fan I want nothing to do with Drew. If I want to overpay an injury prone right fielder Ill take Trot Nixon thank you. Here's a novel thought: How bout we take the money saved on Nixon/Drew and use it on pitching?

Posted by: Chris at November 10, 2006 06:23 AM

Definitely not a standard part of contracts. Rich Lederer and I wrote about this at the time, saying we thought it was a very bad move by the Dodgers. The typical response we got from other bloggers was, "who cares?"

Hopefully, both the Ramirez and Drew situations will show people the error of including clauses like that. I believe A.J. Burnett also has a walk-off clause in his contract.

Posted by: studes at November 10, 2006 09:18 AM

Drew would be a definite upgrade over the player Trot Nixon has become. But it's really tough to assign a value to him -- a fine player when healthy but frequently injured, and getting old enough that (a) he's likely to be injured more often, and (b) injuries will start having a cumulative effect, as they already have with Nixon.

Is Drew going to expect more money or years than he would have gotten from the Dodgers? I'd have a hard time committing 4+ years and/or $40+ million to him. If he's willing to take a short-term contract (one or two years), I'd consider more dollars per year. Say, 1/13 or 2/25 or something like that.

Posted by: johnw at November 10, 2006 09:29 AM

Studes, the reaction wasn't "Who cares?" It wasn't that the clause was meaningless. It was the idea that DePo included it frivilously that I and others objected to. It's no different than objecting to DePo paying Drew $55 million instead of $44 million. The clause was part of the negotiation, it's what it took to get the deal done. It gave Drew an advantage, sure, but that's just what was meant to be. Kevin Brown got airfare, Drew got an out clause.

Ultimately, the Dodgers got two years of Drew for $22 million. And on that level, that's a fair contract.

Posted by: Jon at November 10, 2006 10:07 AM

re: your update from Fire Brand, here is a dissenting Red Sox opnion on JD Drew:

http://www.redsoxtimes.com/?p=344

Posted by: Tim at November 10, 2006 02:55 PM

re: jd drew inPhilly

I doubt the phils will pursue jd drew.

they have two fine lefty hitters in utley and howard.

their prime need is righthanded outfield power. drew doesn't fill that need.

also the fans hate drew and he would draw their hatred quickly if he didn't produce for any reason. they have a long memory and longer knives.

Drew seems an odd duck. He's left now Atlanta, St. Louis and LA, the three best places to work in the NL. Where's he going to go next? He can't work in Boston, it's too tough a town. He needs to go to the Giants or Padres or Mariners. Some easy town where he can lay back and play 100 games and collect his big check and take time off to rest his hamstrings.

--art kyriazis, philly

Posted by: art kyriazis at November 13, 2006 07:31 AM

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