Britton Out 6 months per Rosenthal

[LC_O's_87]

3 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

Holland and Davis both turned down their QO. We would get a draft pick, or if he accepts we trade him to one of those teams that can spend $17M on a closer.

If I understand your logic, that could end up being $30M for 2 years for Britton in which he is at maximum, going to only play 1.5 seasons.  Britton will have no leverage next offseason to get a deal like Holland and Davis got/will get.  He will jump at the QO.

Don't see the benefit for the Orioles

[Frobby]

14 minutes ago, tntoriole said:

"Win or lose, the player is awarded a standard one-year MLB contract with no "minor league split" salary or incentive/performance bonuses. Also, the contract is not guaranteed, so if the player is released during Spring Training, the club would only owe the player 30 days or 45 days salary as termination pay, depending on when the player is released. (A player on an MLB 40-man roster receives 100% of what remains of his salary if he is released during the regular season)."

This is the Miggy Gonzalez situation.  If Britton is released before opening day, he would be owed 45 days salary. 

Of course I’m aware of the Miggy situation.    I haven’t read the new CBA, but the old one limited the reasons why you could release an arbitration-eligible player after tendering a contract, and I don’t remember if you could release a player due to injury in that situation.   

[Aristotelian]

10 minutes ago, LC_O's_87 said:

If I understand your logic, that could end up being $30M for 2 years for Britton in which he is at maximum, going to only play 1.5 seasons.  Britton will have no leverage next offseason to get a deal like Holland and Davis got/will get.  He will jump at the QO.

Don't see the benefit for the Orioles

That makes sense. I was assuming the 2017 salary was a sunk cost. Per MLBTR O's would only owe 1 month if he is released:

MLBTR projected that Britton would command $12.2MM in his final trip through the arbitration process. While it’s too late for the O’s to pull back their decision to tender him a contract, the club could end up releasing Britton to avoid paying him the full contract value. So long as he’s released before the 16th day of Spring Training, the O’s can avoid all but thirty days worth of salary.

[TouchemAll]

Welp there goes another trade chip IMHO that almost assures a Machado trade now. Will be lucky to get anything for him now and 6 months return would be a mircale so he won't be of much use in his last year here and no trade at the waiver deadline either. Only good thing yea might be able to resign him now on the cheap. Good question do you release him now?

[Moose Milligan]

47 minutes ago, SteveA said:

First of all:   This sucks.   For the Orioles, for Zach's earning potential as a free agent.

Second of all:  anyone drawing a conclusion that this somehow reinforces the incompetence of the Orioles front office is grasping at straws.   I'm not saying we shouldn't have dealt him, but anyone who thinks this somehow "proves" or reinforces the fact that we should have, is being silly.   Suppose we had dealt him, and then Givens had been the unlucky guy to tear his Achilles?   Would that "prove" we shouldn't have dealt Britton because now we would be really thin at the back end of the bullpen?   Of course not.

We probably should have dealt him in July, for all the reasons that have been discussed ad nauseum.   But this fluke injury doesn't add to that argument in any way.   It's a fluke injury.

Disagree.

The shelf life for a closer is can be pretty short.  Yes, there are guys like Rivera, Hoffman, Wagner that have prolonged excellence but they seem to be few and far between.

Britton should have been traded for the reasons that we've discussed before, primarily an overinflated market for closers, coincidentally peaking at the time where he was the best closer in the game and we could have received a haul perhaps better than we could get for Machado this offseason.

The market for relievers is still hot and Britton could have still been dealt for a nice package this offseason...probably not as good as what we could have gotten 12-18 months ago, but still pretty good.

Now there's no chance we can get anything for him.  While this sounds like an unlucky accident, the Orioles lack of vision and foresight here is biting them in the ass.  The inability to be decisive, to trade an asset when the market for that asset is at a fever pitch and we could get a great package back, even a respectful package is out the window.  It's one less card the Orioles have to play as they look to rebuild (if they're smart enough to do that).

You're right in the sense that no one could have seen this coming, that's true.  

[HelenaEngineer]

Releasing him and paying him for 45 days or whatever would be flat out wrong. Sure, it would save some money for the payroll this year. If he had torn up his knee skiing or something in violation of his contract, I would be fine with releasing him. You want to save a few million dollars by cutting a guy who was working out to get ready for the season, be prepared to be a pariah team. People think free agents avoid the Orioles because they have unreasonable demands with respect to their physicals, wait to you see how they get treated when they squeeze Britton out of $5-$10 million for a workout injury after what he has done in their uniform.

If that is the level of class that they have, then I would seriously reconsider whether I continue to follow them with serious interest. I can deal with poor decisions, bad luck or whatever but showing no class or loyalty at all in order to save a few bucks is problematic to me. I would hope they are better than that and suspect the long term payoff for doing the right thing would far exceed the short term salary savings in 2018.

[pastorfan]

1 hour ago, Aglets said:

As much as we will be tempted as fans to blame the team for this awful development.....(or blame them for not foreseeing this and thus trading him earlier).....that's a fool's errand.  He ruptured his Achilles working out..........that could happen to literally anyone.

Still really hurts. 

Yes, the fact that kind of stuff always happens to the O's is simply bad luck. Thats all just some bad luck. 

[interloper]

If we keep him and he comes back during the season, can we still offer him the QO and get the pick? If so, releasing him is a huge mistake. I'll take the pick over the $10 or so million.

[ExileAngelos]

I really enjoyed 2012-2016.  Back to the dark ages we go.  Hopefully won't be 15 years this time 

[TonySoprano]

Britt Ghiroli reports timetable may be 4 months.

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/263808464/orioles-zach-britton-has-achilles-injury

[sportsfan8703]

Britton will be released. Money saved. Let’s give it to Schoop. 

[oriole]

46 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

What free agent or trade target SP is out there that can help us go from sub .500 to playoffs without Britton?

Trade Machado to STL for Wacha/Flaherty

sign Cashner

sign Granderson

Trade for Headley or some other stopgap 3B

 

not saying this a for sure playoff contender but it's not a bad team if there are no major setbacks and Bundy/Gausman get better.

[pastorfan]

1 hour ago, birdwatcher55 said:

Six months is not the end of Western Civilization as we know it. That brings him back by July 1. Pretty much takes Brach off the trade block and locks Givens and O'Day into their roles as eighth and seventh inning setup. Also gives our Rule V guys a major opportunity. The sky is not falling in my opinion.

LOL. No the sky is not falling, because it already fell. Indecision is more costly than the wrong decision---the Orioles are proof positive of this. Wait until Manny gets hurt in July and can't be traded. Good news is we still have Davis!

[HelenaEngineer]

3 minutes ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Britton will be released. Money saved. Let’s give it to Schoop. 

You screw over his teammate injured while working out to get ready for the season and then want to take those few million saved and roll it into resigning Schoop? Good luck with that and with your reputation around the league going forward.

[Can_of_corn]

And the Orioles' inactivity did anger the Baseball Gods and in response they did smote Britton causing him most grievous injury.