Mark Trumbo agrees to $9.15 million deal to avoid arbitration

[PeteCanes]

$15 mill for Trumbo seems too high but we shall see. I think 9 mil is too much but let us see how he performs in 2016.

Carter has a better career OBP, better OPS. I will take him for $3 mil over Trumbo at $9 mil any day...especially for a team like us that has limited resources apparently.

I'll take Trumbo over Carter as an everyday player, don't care about the $6m.

[PeteCanes]

$15 mill for Trumbo seems too high but we shall see. I think 9 mil is too much but let us see how he performs in 2016.

Let's hope so, because his career numbers at OPACY are a disaster. Granted, that's only 10 games, but still.

Why bring it up? A disaster?

[DrungoHazewood]

Let's hope so, because his career numbers at OPACY are a disaster. Granted, that's only 10 games, but still.

Saying 10 games of numbers are "a disaster" is like calling that water you splashed on the counter while doing dishes an apocalypse.

[backwardsk]

Saying 10 games of numbers are "a disaster" is like calling that water you splashed on the counter while doing dishes an apocalypse.

Please. You always change the significance of sample size to suit your needs.

Fact is Trumbo has a .600 winning percentage at Camden Yards. All we have to do is tread water on the road and, BOOM!, 90 win season.

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[backwardsk]

Let's hope so, because his career numbers at OPACY are a disaster. Granted, that's only 10 games, but still.

Trumbo is a winner at Camden Yards.

.600 winning percentage. Which team last year was better than that?

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[Frobby]

If Trumbo DH's, I agree. If he plays 1B, not as bad. The plan was to sign Davis so I think it was a poorly conceived plan that might wind up okay if Davis goes elsewhere.

Trumbo was insurance in case we couldn't sign Davis, and also a signal to Davis that it wasn't a necessity for us to have him back. Therefore, I consider it a pretty good plan, even though it's clear that getting Davis back was our preference and Trumbo would not have fit as well in that scenario.

If we do sign Cespedes now, I will consider DD to have had a pretty good winter on the offensive side of things. I'm still awfully worried about the pitching, though.

[DrungoHazewood]

If Trumbo DH's, I agree. If he plays 1B, not as bad. The plan was to sign Davis so I think it was a poorly conceived plan that might wind up okay if Davis goes elsewhere.

Isn't that Duquette's MO? Throw together some BS plan and hope it all works out against any reasonable odds?

[Frobby]

There were other ways to get insurance for Davis. First off, do you know that Trumbo wouldn't still be on the market looking for a home right now? Secondly, Steve Pearce is still out there. Thirdly, the Orioles could have looked at some 1B available for trade.

I don't know what would have happened with Trumbo if we hadn't traded for him. Maybe he would have been traded to another team; maybe he would have been non-tendered and some other team would have gotten him; maybe he would have been non-tendered and we could have signed him for less than $9.15 mm; maybe he would have cost more than $9.15 mm (I don't consider this last scenario to be that likely, but it's not out of the question). The O's chose the more certain route and traded a player we didn't really need and got two players back. I'm fine with it.

I agree there were other alternatives such as Pearce. I'm reasonably happy with the Trumbo alternative. He costs a bit more than some of the others, but I think he has more likelihood of giving us a solidly productive year. I guess we'll see.

[DrungoHazewood]

Sounds like snark. If you want to argue the point, let me know.

Hopefully, the signing of Trumbo at 9.15M is an indication that Davis is out.

Of course it was snark. But that seems to be a sizeable portion of the board's, including your, opinion of Duquette's tenure as GM. Didn't you recently grade him an F?

[MurphDogg]

Not sure what you mean, but paying Trumbo 9.15M to be the DH is an overpay. I see posters dreaming about signing both Cespedes and Davis. They are in la la land. However, if we are going to be in la la land, wouldn't it be more realistic to sign both Davis and Cespedes without Trumbo's 9.15M on the books this year? Of course.

I think that if Angelos is convinced to sign both Cespedes and Davis it would be with the understanding that Wieters and Trumbo are traded ASAP, as early as mid-June. That would clear approximately $15 million from the payroll and bring the payroll down to the approximate 10 percent increase we have seen over the past several years.

[DrungoHazewood]

Not sure what you mean, but paying Trumbo 9.15M to be the DH is an overpay. I see posters dreaming about signing both Cespedes and Davis. They are in la la land. However, if we are going to be in la la land, wouldn't it be more realistic to sign both Davis and Cespedes without Trumbo's 9.15M on the books this year? Of course.

As a pure DH at his career 108 wRC+ Trumbo is roughly a one-win player. Which would cost you $7M on the free agent market. I guess you could instead just throw a random $500k body at the DH slot and save some marginal amount of cash, but also add some uncertainty and a lower expectation to the performance. I don't understand why paying a few million (i.e. about 1.5 percent of the likely 2016 payroll) over one case of his hypothetical value is a huge deal.

[DrungoHazewood]

I think that if Angelos is convinced to sign both Cespedes and Davis it would be with the understanding that Wieters and Trumbo are traded ASAP, as early as mid-June. That would clear approximately $15 million from the payroll and bring the payroll down to the approximate 10 percent increase we have seen over the past several years.

If we're now in a universe where the Orioles are going to add well over $200M in salary commitments to Cespedes and Davis why do they need to clear Wieters and Trumbo? Their combined commitment is going to be roughly 10% of Cespedes and Davis. The margin of error in predicted salaries for Cespedes and Davis is more than what will be paid to Trumbo and Wieters.

[DrungoHazewood]

Yeah it's really not a huge deal. It's not going to impact our ability to sign other players. And hell, maybe he's a nice fit in the clubhouse and in Camden Yards. We did rejuvenate the hell out of Cruz's career, after all, on a similar deal.

Maybe the plan is to make sure Trumbo finds the same fountain of youth Cruz did.

[MurphDogg]

If we're now in a universe where the Orioles are going to add well over $200M in salary commitments to Cespedes and Davis why do they need to clear Wieters and Trumbo? Their combined commitment is going to be roughly 10% of Cespedes and Davis. The margin of error in predicted salaries for Cespedes and Davis is more than what will be paid to Trumbo and Wieters.

While the commitment would be big it would not affect the payroll for 2016 too severely. It kicks the can down the road. In 2018 Cespedes and Davis replace Jimenez and Hardy as the top three salaries. It is definitely a risk because it limits your future payroll flexibility but it could be done. Though this is where the lack of a productive farm system over the last year or two is truly frightening as we need an influx of pre-arbitration players to keep payroll manageable under this scenario.

[Babypowder]

Maybe the plan is to make sure Trumbo finds the same fountain of youth Cruz did.

Biogenesis back in business yet?