They asked Mancini and Santander to defer money

[Can_of_corn]

16 minutes ago, MurphDogg said:

I honestly don't think that there was an ownership fiat to not spend the full draft allocation. I think they got the guys that were available that they liked when they were drafting, and at the end it turned out that they didn't need to spend the entire amount. I believe this because they haven't previously gone cheap on the draft in recent years and they spent nearly their full J15 allotment (and may well spend the remaining $100K or so with stragglers over the coming weeks). If there was an ownership decree, I think it would have been for well over $222K.

I just don't see why folks can see all the rest and still deny the possibility that cuts are being made in other areas.  I don't see how they have earned any trust in that area.

[Roll Tide]

4 hours ago, MurphDogg said:

Yes, you are the only sports fan to rail against team ownership on the internet. Every owner is super popular among message boards denizens and everyone else on this message board loves Peter G. Angelos and has never had a negative thing to say about him. Thank you for your service.

I use call the owner Sneaky Pete!

[MurphDogg]

1 hour ago, Can_of_corn said:

I just don't see why folks can see all the rest and still deny the possibility that cuts are being made in other areas.  I don't see how they have earned any trust in that area.

It's possible, but the evidence isn't there. My theory espoused above seems more likely, in my opinion, than the idea that ownership declared that they could spend $13.67 million of their $13.89 million pool, but not a penny more. $222K is 1.6 percent of the pool, essentially a rounding error. If their hands were tied, it would have been a more substantial sum of money being saved.

[Can_of_corn]

2 minutes ago, MurphDogg said:

It's possible, but the evidence isn't there. My belief seems more likely, in my opinion, than the idea that ownership declared that they could spend $13.67 million of their $13.89 million pool, but not a penny more. $222K is 1.6 percent of the pool, essentially a rounding error. If their hands were tied, it would have been a more substantial sum of money being saved.

So they weren't penny pinching enough to be penny pinching at all? 

They did leave more unspent than any other team.  More than other famously frugal teams like the Marlins, Rays, Indians and Pirates.

Sorry, when I see them cutting everything else, saving amounts that should be irrelevant, I can't trust them.  I think it's pretty clear that they consider 222K an amount they deem at least somewhat significant.

[bpilktree]

If they were that cash strapped on money they could have not resigned Sanchez and let Martin play SS this season and saved 500k and no one would blinked an eye.  They could have saved on international period and still spent way more then they ever have.  This seems like a bad PR type move and so many other ways to save money.  

[MurphDogg]

1 hour ago, Can_of_corn said:

So they weren't penny pinching enough to be penny pinching at all? 

They did leave more unspent than any other team.  More than other famously frugal teams like the Marlins, Rays, Indians and Pirates.

Sorry, when I see them cutting everything else, saving amounts that should be irrelevant, I can't trust them.  I think it's pretty clear that they consider 222K an amount they deem at least somewhat significant.

I don't think we are going to convince one another which is fine.

If they placed values on certain players, they could certainly end up "accidentally" saving $222K over the course of a 5 round draft. Especially when their plan was to sign their first pick for significantly less than slot value. There is something of an information gap when drafting in the Majors. Teams don't know exactly what it is going to take to sign every single player, there is uncertainty as to which players will be available in future rounds, and they could reasonably think that a player that costs less to sign is better than a player who might cost more to sign.

Coby Mayo and Carter Baumler were the highest paid players drafted in the 4th and 5th rounds. Of the 60 players taken, in those two rounds, they were #1 and #2. 

They could have gotten a more expensive player in the supplemental, second, and third rounds but on the other hand they could have legitimately preferred say, Anthony Servideo at #74 for $950K over Nick Garcia who went at #79 for $1.2M. I have no idea whether they did or didn't, or whether they were right or wrong in their judgments, but especially in a draft where you only end up with 6 guys, it doesn't seem absurd to end up only using 98.5 percent of their slot value. 

Maybe they thought Kjerstad would take $5.5 million to sign and they negotiated it down to $5.2 million.

In a normal draft you can take a couple of high school fliers in the 11-30th rounds knowing that you can only sign one play them against each other to try to get as close to your slot value as possible. This draft was unique, that wasn't an option this year.

I believe they went in with a plan to go underslot on the first pick because they thought Kjerstad plus overslot guys that would cost an additional $2.5-$2.75M was more valuable than drafting Austin Martin and not getting any overslot guys. They executed that plan. Could a part of the plan have been to cap their spend at 98.5% of the slot value? Sure, but that need not have been part of the plan.

[BradyBunch]

4 hours ago, eddie83 said:

They own the stadium naming rights. Could always sell that. 
 

Years ago I had a strong opinion about stuff like that, now not so much. If some company puts their name on it I’ll still call it Camden Yards.  

Yeah, that isn't gonna happen. All about Oriole way and tradition.

[Frobby]

5 hours ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

Yes, the O's have the 28th or 29th largest payroll.  They should be under less financial constraints than just about any other team.  I'm not expecting them to add big multi-year contracts, but its a shock when they seem to be cutting basic costs of other franchises.  MASN is a cash cow, so to cut production costs from something that is making tons of money makes no sense.  The actual O's franchise can't be losing much money, less than just about any other franchise. 

MASN is not that much of a cash cow these days.    Between the arbitration decision hiking the rights fees and the lost revenue from cord cutting, it’s way less profitable than it used to be.    That, plus playing games with nobody in the stands, has cost the team a lot of money.     

[Sports Guy]

Seeing as the team tried to defer some of his salary, trading Santander feels like an even larger possibility now. 
 

I do admit to now worrying that they trade him for a lesser package though.

[MGH5208]

Nothing to see here!  This is the business side of "the shift."  Every team will be doing it 2-3 years from now.  Just because you're the first doesn't mean you're wrong or that the team is for sale - settle down.

[Can_of_corn]

6 minutes ago, MGH5208 said:

Nothing to see here!  This is the business side of "the shift."  Every team will be doing it 2-3 years from now.  Just because you're the first doesn't mean you're wrong or that the team is for sale - settle down.

I don't think it is going to become SOP to ask guys to take deferments on non-guaranteed contracts.

 

[MGH5208]

Or maybe it will, but like most of the stuff thats discussed here - neither of us know.....

[Can_of_corn]

7 minutes ago, MGH5208 said:

Or maybe it will, but like most of the stuff thats discussed here - neither of us know.....

Team player contracts aren't privileged information.  Deferred money impacts luxury tax numbers.

[LookinUp]

1 hour ago, Sports Guy said:

Seeing as the team tried to defer some of his salary, trading Santander feels like an even larger possibility now. 
 

I do admit to now worrying that they trade him for a lesser package though.

Yeah. Regardless of whether you want to trade him, you don’t want to trade him from a desperate cost cutting position. 

[Jammer7]

Was this simply just an effort by Elias to stretch the 2021 payroll to sign a FA SS or starter he has in mind? I just cannot think that Elias would sign Sanchez and Valaika for nearly $2 million combined if money was THAT tight.