Heyward May Have Crashed the OF Market

[paulcoates]

I wouldn't be surprised if the Players Assn takes some action against the Heyward contract.

Why would they? If he is happy with it, why would they?

[CP0861]

But either way. So much for a 200 million dollar offer. For any position player.

Nats offered, or were "believed" to have offered $200, per Jon Heyman....

[DrungoHazewood]

Is that because you just don't value defensive stats as much? If so, fair enough. But I think at 26, there's even plenty of time for him to figure things out at the plate even more, and become a significant offensive threat as well. Left handed too.

I very much would prefer Heyward at his contract to Davis at whatever he's likely to get.

[DrungoHazewood]

Nats offered, or were "believed" to have offered $200, per Jon Heyman....

Haven't they figured out yet that all MASN money is Confederate?

[NATTYBO's]

Nats offered, or were "believed" to have offered $200, per Jon Heyman....

Boras probably told Heyman that to keep Davis' value higher

[TheDirtyBird]

Anyone else a little bummed that, at that price, the O's weren't involved? I mean who knows, he may have had no interest in the AL or Baltimore, but man I like him at 8/184 a lot more than CD at 7/150.

Without being biased, would you rather come to Baltimore or have a shot at helping lead the cubbies to the World Series? You'd be a damn hero for the rest of your life. I don't even think it's close

[ChicagoTerp]

Nope. Not at all.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">MLB manager to Tom Verducci about Jason Heyward: "I just don't see it." <a href="https://t.co/DAxkNjntj4">https://t.co/DAxkNjntj4</a> <a href="https://t.co/38OBJX6gp4">pic.twitter.com/38OBJX6gp4</a></p>? Sports Illustrated (@SInow) <a href="

">December 11, 2015</a></blockquote>

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

Interesting, thanks.

Just to play devil's advocate though: Heyward's relatively "raw" swing is a double-edged sword. To me that might indicate that there is actually a lot of room for improvement. I see Heyward at 26 as a very rare example of a marquee free agent where you might actually be paying more for future performance than past performance.

[weams]

Nats offered, or were "believed" to have offered $200, per Jon Heyman....

Heyman is not someone to believe on rumors. You know which side of the aisle he gets his info from.

[ChicagoTerp]

Without being biased, would you rather come to Baltimore or have a shot at helping lead the cubbies to the World Series? You'd be a damn hero for the rest of your life. I don't even think it's close

Oh without a question, the Cubs are the team to beat now and for several years to come. I live 5 blocks from Wrigley and it's an exciting time here. My comment was more hypothetical.

[weams]

Haven't they figured out yet that all MASN money is Confederate?

It really is... Really.

[weams]

Oh without a question, the Cubs are the team to beat now and for several years to come. I live 5 blocks from Wrigley and it's an exciting time here. My comment was more hypothetical.

Enjoy the ride. We have several Cub fans who post here.

[theobird]

Heyward was the premium FA in this class. His deal sets the ceiling for position players.

[TheDirtyBird]

Oh without a question, the Cubs are the team to beat now and for several years to come. I live 5 blocks from Wrigley and it's an exciting time here. My comment was more hypothetical.

Yea of course, u was just thinking out loud. What a time to be a Cubs fan, good for them. It's refreshing to see someone to take less to go somewhere they want

[GoldGlove21]

Is that because you just don't value defensive stats as much? If so, fair enough. But I think at 26, there's even plenty of time for him to figure things out at the plate even more, and become a significant offensive threat as well. Left handed too.

If you are paying a guy $23M a season over 8 seasons do you really want to bank on them figuring anything out? In a world where Heyward gets $184M over 8 and Davis' camp balks at $150M over 7, how much money does Manny Machado get in this market?

[Number5]

I think that one thing this may show is that MLB teams' proprietary metrics may not value certain defensive aspects as highly as metrics that are available to us. Perhaps especially for outfielders. Let's face it, quite a bit of the value we perceived in Heyward was in his defense. MLB teams just may not assign quite so much value there.

I think we can rest assured that Boras is going to be focusing on the difference in home run power between Davis and Heyward, and downplaying the differences in speed and defense.