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Wieters is staying with the Orioles for 2016

VeveJones007

By VeveJones007
in Orioles Talk

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DrungoHazewood Hangout Grand Counsel

DrungoHazewood

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Yep, I'm surprised and even a little disappointed in the amount of people who actually like that Wieters is returning for $15 million. Joseph was a 2.2 win player and Clevenger was a 0.4. Even if you double Wieters WAR from last season, he hasn't had a season with a WAR above 1.6 since 2012 when he was 26 years old.

He'll be 30 years old next year. History is not kind to 6-5 catchers in their 30s. Unless Angelos is willing to significantly up our payroll, this just changed our offseason plans considerably.

I'm okay with a good guy who will probably be reasonably productive returning on a one-year deal. I'm not thrilled, but far worse things could happen. I don't think Clevenger is a real catcher, he caught 56 innings for the team last year while playing 20-some at DH/PH. They'd probably have to carry another catcher anyway, as Joseph isn't a guy who is going to catch 130 games. And most of the reason that history isn't kind to 6'5 catchers in their 30s is that there probably haven't been 10 6' 5" catchers in MLB history.

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utvolzac Major Leaguer Cup of Coffee

utvolzac

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J

This is not good news for the Orioles in any shape or form. Take off your fan glasses and if you look at what just happened, you'll see the Orioles just took a huge payroll hit in a place where they didn't necessarily expect it. This will cause ramifications elsewhere this offseason. We just signed a 2 win (at best) catcher for $15 million dollars when we probably could have had those two wins from Joseph and Clevinger for about $13 million less.

The only thing I'm surprised about is that the Orioles didn't have an agreement in place with Wieters to not accept. From the outside looking in, it appears Duquette gambled and lost on this one.

I'm with you. Wish I wouldn't have read the news at work. Four letter words have been flying out of my office left and right.

We have so many other holes to fill. No one should be happy he accepted the offer.

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brooks1083 Major Leaguer

brooks1083

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I really agree with this take. I think we gambled and lost, and all the lip service to keeping him publicly was just that. This certainly sends us back to the drawing board as we think about how we can allocate money this offseason. I can't imagine we were banking on spending that much at the catcher position. I was looking forward to seeing a lot more CaJo behind the dish, mixed with some Clevenger.

I was about to log in to post this exact same thing. I think behind closed doors, the FO is scrambling now to figure out how to recover. I think they were probably betting on odds of about 10 to 1 that he wouldn't take the QO. I like Matt, but of all this year's FA, he was the one I wanted back the least.

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SteveO Veteran All-Star

SteveO

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I am not down on this news because MW is in some way not a good guy or cannot be a contributor.

I am down on this because it's 15 million in payroll being spent redundantly in light of the fact we have a guy who can do the job credibly for about 14+ million less.

When your a team that has the number of holes we have, the poor farm system we have, every dollar matters and that is a whole lot of money that just fluttered off into redundancy oblivion.

The only thing that could make this worthwhile is if CD leaves I would tell MW congrats bro your our new platoon 1B and backup C ...... other than that, not sure how else you get enough value out of MW that you would not have already gotten from CJ that makes this look like anything less than a disaster.

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Tony-OH Hangout Grand Counsel

Tony-OH

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Why would anyone agree to not accept? The only time you need that sort of agreement is when it most behooves the player to NOT be offered the QO offer. All such an agreement would do for Wieters/Boras is make it harder for him to find a good multi-year deal as whatever team signs him would have to give up the draft pick. Why would you ever accept that. By accepting that gentleman's agreement you ensure that you'll be handicapped with the draft pick tied to you. If you don't make that agreement, you lower your chance of being offered the QO.

Gentlemen's agreements happen all the time in baseball. Clearly Boros did what he does best. He gets the most money he can for his client.

I'm just surprised the Orioles would have offered him a QO without some kind of understanding. If they did so without one, they really misread the market because I'm not surprised in the least bit that Wieters took the QO. He would have been dumb not to.

Duquette is a smart guy so perhaps he's got an understanding that he can significantly improve payroll and Wieters' bloated contract won't affect what he still needs to do this offseason. At least I hope so.

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Babypowder Hangout Veteran Council

Babypowder

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I am not down on this news because MW is in some way not a good guy or cannot be a contributor.

I am down on this because it's 15 million in payroll being spent redundantly in light of the fact we have a guy who can do the job credibly for about 14+ million less.

When your a team that has the number of holes we have, the poor farm system we have, every dollar matters and that is a whole lot of money that just fluttered off into redundancy oblivion.

The only thing that could make this worthwhile is if CD leaves I would tell MW congrats bro your our new platoon 1B and backup C ...... other than that, not sure how else you get enough value out of MW that you would not have already gotten from CJ that makes this look like anything less than a disaster.

The problem with that plan is that all of Wieters value is tied to him being a catcher. He's a below average bat at 1B and almost definitely a below average defender.

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spiritof66 Hangout Grand Counsel

spiritof66

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Well, looks like this offseason is going to change the QO dynamic quite a bit. Will be interesting to see how today influences how teams make their QO decisions next year.

I think the Orioles have totally prepared for this/are not surprised.

Emotionally prepared, maybe. But financially prepared? Not so much.

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24fps Hangout Grand Counsel

24fps

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If a one year deal cripples the franchise then the Orioles are in worse shape then i thought. You can backdate the other contracts for one year.

Cripple is strong language and not useful. Negatively impact over the next few years would be much better. It's not about Wieters' deal it's about the other deals that are now no longer possible. There is one bright side that I can see, and that is that now DD has to bargain shop to a much greater degree, and I believe that last year's lack of success was partially bad luck. Not exactly cold comfort, but lukewarm at best.

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DrungoHazewood Hangout Grand Counsel

DrungoHazewood

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History says 2 WAR and he's coming of an injury and entering his decline phase. Proper process begins with never gambling what you can't afford to lose. The Orioles lost big today because they relinquished control of a significant part of their near-term future on a long shot.

"Significant part of their near-term future"? $15M? I'm mildly concerned on the potential FY16 payroll, but not that much. They just have to get a little more creative. We'll see. Maybe I'm na?ve. Probably. But I'm just not an end of the world kind of guy. They'll figure something out. Or not.

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