Jump to content

Nelson Cruz Officially Declines Orioles Qualifying Offer (and 3 yr deal?)


Slade-OH

Recommended Posts

As many expected, Nelson Cruz declined the Orioles $15.3 million qualifying offer this afternoon, electing to become a free agent. This shouldn't come as a surprise as both parties knew what they were signing up for back in February when the O's inked Cruz to a 1-year deal worth $8 million. Cruz offered the Orioles another power bat and run producer in the middle of the order at a clearance rack price. The Orioles offered Cruz, desperate for a suitor at that point, a one-year opportunity to re-establish his free agent value, coming off a season that ended in a PED-related suspension.

It proved to be the perfect situation for both Cruz and the Orioles. Nelson fit right in with the Baltimore Orioles and hammered a career-best and MLB-leading 40 home runs along with an impressive .271/.333/.525 slash line and a 2014 MLB all-star game appearance. He proved to be a pivotal part of the Orioles first AL East title since

was relevant music (1997). I'd say the mission was accomplished by Cruz's camp as he shouldn't have nearly as difficult of time finding that lucrative contract he has been seeking this offseason.

Both sides have expressed interest in keeping Cruz in Baltimore but it's certainly possible that his price tag becomes too high for what the Orioles are realistically willing to offer on the free agent market. After all, Cruz does turn 35 next July, so it's reasonable to assume that his future production may not quite approach the level he played at in 2014. If he does end up signing elsewhere, the Orioles will at least recieve a supplemental 2015 draft pick out of the deal.

Is the short-lived Nelson Cruz era over? Or do you think the Orioles will work out a deal to keep him in Baltimore for several more seasons? Are you willing to give him a 4-year deal if that's the selling point in securing his services for the O's? Are there other free agents you would rather see the Orioles pursue?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 203
  • Created
  • Last Reply
Guest rochester
But he worked for a very team friendly deal last year. How smart is that? What if he had not stayed healthy?

Smarter than waiting until August, IMO.:o

Link to comment
Share on other sites

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>The Orioles offered Nelson Cruz a three-year deal before he went into free agency. They're positioned to wait out as he talks w/ other teams</p>— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) <a href="

">November 11, 2014</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Link to comment
Share on other sites

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>The Orioles offered Nelson Cruz a three-year deal before he went into free agency. They're positioned to wait out as he talks w/ other teams</p>? Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) <a href="
">November 11, 2014</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

C'mon Buster. Give us the dollars.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>The Orioles offered Nelson Cruz a three-year deal before he went into free agency. They're positioned to wait out as he talks w/ other teams</p>— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) <a href="
">November 11, 2014</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Dan Duquette said that he had payroll flexibility to sign both Cruz and Markakis if he decide to. Says they are not mutually exclusive.

https://twitter.com/dc_tbldaily/status/532267004569587712

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Are they even considering Miller? I thought not. No one has indicated any interest.

We would have won the division without Miller, I'm pretty sure. But it was great to have him down the stretch and in the postseason. I think it may be more prudent to pick up an extra reliever for the stretch run than it is to commit to a $25-32 mm outlay over 3-4 years.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The real point I was trying to make is that of our free agents I would rank Markakis MUCH lower than Miller or Cruz. These two are/can be difference makers. At this point in his career, Nick is basically a full time Joe Orsulak.

Andrew Miller has been an above average reliever for a single season in his career. His career walk rate is almost 5. I like Andrew Miller but he is probably going to be among the 15 best paid relievers in baseball and it is possible that he falls off a cliff. I think Markakis is a safer bet than Miller.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Andrew Miller has been an above average reliever for a single season in his career. His career walk rate is almost 5. I like Andrew Miller but he is probably going to be among the 15 best paid relievers in baseball and it is possible that he falls off a cliff. I think Markakis is a safer bet than Miller.

It's possible he continues like last year and so does Nick. Which means their values are about equal in a vacuum. But, there are a lot more relievers obtainable than right fielders.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.




  • Posts

    • The Cowboys have an owner with deep pockets. I agree 100% … There is some cap manipulation that happens. At the end of the day they have a $255 million limit they are required to operate under. The Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox, etc can decide each year how much they want to add to the luxury tax fund as opposed to not being able to fit a potential move under the cap. Here are the 2024 payrolls for the NFL and MLB   https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2024/04/03/mlb-team-payrolls-2024-highest-lowest-mets/73139425007/ Highest $305 million vs $60 million  https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cap/_/year/2024/sort/cap_maximum_space Highest $259.5 million vs $217 million these numbers will likely get tighter once they make additions before the trade deadline.  If you can’t see the difference I’m just wasting my time. The biggest driving force in MLB beyond the ability of some to spend lavishly is the tv markets. The club controls so much of their tv revenue that it’s an unfair game. The moved that created the Orioles didn’t have much of an effect on the Senators tv market which was likely nonexistent then. Plus MLB is allowing contract manipulation like Othani’s contract. Instead of $700 divided by length 10 years, Somehow he only counts as like $46 million which is laughable. Plus they are paying $85 million in luxury tax fees in 2024.    The Orioles were a large market team when the Expos moved to DC. They could afford to spend with the Yankees, Red Sox , and Blue Jays. Could the Orioles afford to pay $85 million in luxury tax fees? Could the Yankees? I know the answer to both.  What grounds ? Who cares ? The impact was astronomical …It made it very difficult to compete in the AL East without tank a thon! It split their tv market in half. Obviously MLB papered over that long enough to get an agreement done.    They turned a large market team into 2 small/mid market teams. The Orioles and Nationals payrolls combined place them only 11th in baseball. Obviously they could afford to spend more. But it’s doubtful either will ever be top 10 for more than a season  or two as they try to hang onto a window.     
    • Thanks for the detailed explanation of all of the issues.  Sounds like a mess.
    • Yeah the amenities are pretty outdated at the yard and they seem to do nothing year over year to improve them. The touchscreens have been banged on to death to the point they barely function, so you can't accurately fill out your order at the kiosks, and they don't have a way for the people behind the counter to ring you up at many of the food places. The sound is low to non-existent in certain sections of the club level, like around 218. Seems like there should be speakers that reach there but they might have been damaged by rain, etc. and they are too lazy to fix them. If you go to a game that's even slightly busy, you will wait forever to get into the bathroom, and the sink will be an absolute mess with no soap or paper towels. It's even worse on the club level where they have one sink that's right by the door. Nearby businesses don't care, either. The Hilton parking garage reeks of decay, pot and human waste. They don't turn on the air circulation fans, even if cars are waiting for an hour and a half to exit from P3, filling up the air with carbon monoxide. They only let you enter the stadium with one 20 oz bottle of water. It's so expensive to buy a drink or water in the stadium, but with all the salty food, 20 oz of water isn't enough, especially on a hot day. Vegetarian food options are poor to none, other than things like chips, fries, hot pretzels and the occasional pizza. Vida Taco is better, but at an inconvenient location for many seats. The doors on the club level are not accessible. They're anti-accessible. Big, heavy doors you have to go through to get to/from the escalators, and big, heavy doors to get to your seats, none of them automatic (or even with the option to be automatic with a button press). Makes it hard to carry food out to your seats even if not handicapped. The furniture in the lounges on the club level seem designed to allow as few people as possible to sit down. Not great when we have so many rain delays during the season. Should put more, smaller chairs in and allow more of the club level ticket holders to have a seat while waiting for thunderstorms to pass. They keep a lot of the entrance/exit gates closed except for playoff/sellout games, which means people have to slowly "mooooo" all the way down Eutaw St to get to parking. They are too cheap to staff all the gates, so they make people exit by the warehouse, even though it would be a lot more convenient for many fans to open all the gates. Taking Light Rail would be super convenient, except that if there's at least 20k fans in attendance, it's common to have to wait 90-120 minutes to be able to board a non-full train heading toward Glen Burnie. A few trains might come by, but they are already full, or fill up fast when folks walk up to the Convention Center stop to pre-empt the folks trying to board at Camden Station. None of the garages in the area are set up to require pre-payment on entry (reservation, or give them your card / digital payment at the entrance till). If they were, emptying out the garage would be very quick, as they wouldn't need to ticket anyone on the way out: if you can't get in without paying, you can always just leave without having to stop and scan your phone or put a ticket in the machine. They shut down the Sports Legends Museum at Camden Station in 2015 because the Maryland Stadium Authority was too greedy. That place was a fun distraction if you were in the area when a game wasn't about to start, like if you show up super early on Opening Day or a playoff day. Superbook's restaurant on Eutaw is a huge downgrade from Dempsey's in terms of menu and service quality. Dempsey's used to be well-staffed, you could reserve a table online, and they had all kinds of great selection for every diet. Superbook seems like just another bar serving the same swill that the rest of the park serves, with extremely minimal and low-quality food. For that matter, most of the food at the stadium is very low quality these days. A lot of things we used to love are made to a lower standard now if they are served at all. These are gripes about the stadium and the area that haven't changed my entire adult life. Going to an O's game requires one to tolerate many small inconveniences and several major inconveniences, any number of which could easily be fixed by the relevant authorities if they gave a damn about the people who pay to come see the team play. You would think a mid-market team would be able to afford to invest in the fan experience. You would think the city and partnering organizations like garages, the Stadium Authority and MTA would at least try to do their part to make the experience enjoyable and free of kinks. You would think they would put some thought into handling the "growing pains" of the fanbase due to recent renewed interest after the dark years. Instead, all we get is the same indifference and the same annoyances year in and year out. The whole area is overdue for a revamp. Not sure if $600 mil will get it done, but at least it's a start. Hopefully they can start to patch up some of the many holes in the fan experience. If you're not going to invest in Burnes, at least make it so paying customers have an easier, more enjoyable time getting to/from the stadium and having some food while we're there.
    • Elias has only been in rebuild mode with the O's so there's not much to speculate on there.  Houston, where he spent his formative years, doesn't seem to like to be on the hook for more than a couple of big long-term contracts at any given time.  I can see that as being Elias' choice as well, albeit with a lower overall cost - Houston runs a big payroll.  But it's all guesswork.  I really don't know. If Elias takes the 2025 payroll to $150 million it will creep up to $200 million or so by 2028 just from keeping the core together.  That's where I start to wonder about sustainability due to market size, economic forces, etc., etc., etc... If it were up to me, I would add a couple of free agents this offseason even if the contracts were longer than ideal and be conservative about extensions elsewhere until the prospects establish themselves a little better.  I think there's a competitive opportunity that the team is already into that's worth exploiting. I think ownership is very happy to have Elias on board and they're not inclined to force him to do anything.  I also think Rubenstein's demonstrated business prowess is great enough to assume that he has had plenty enough time to come to a mutual understanding with Elias as to goals.
    • We need a RH O’hearn…in addition to Westburg. At least 3 batters that will push up the pitch count and cause damage in the top 5 of the lineup.
    • Boy,  that Jackson Merrill is a good young player that is playing his best ball down the season stretch and in the playoffs.   He's only 21.  I guess some young guys are able to play up to the pressure.   Who could have guessed that?
    • I’m aware.   You are arguing something im Not.
  • Popular Contributors

×
×
  • Create New...