Chris Davis retires!

[sevastras]

I am sure this was negotiated and it helps Davis save face(whats left) and allows the Os to move on.  Good for both parties.  Thank you CD for all of the good times and contributions to the city of Baltimore.  Someone should start an appreciation thread.

[waroriole]

2 minutes ago, sevastras said:

Deferred money is silly now that they have to deposit the money into an escrow account anyways.  I reckon if the player doesnt trust themselves with handling the money they could ask for deferred money but I dont think that is the case with Davis.

But they don’t put it all in escrow now do they? Isn’t it required to be deposited into an account 1 year before due?

[Gurgi]

27 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

The guy is getting all of his money. Basically the Orioles paid him to just go away. 

His legacy will be as the guy who signed the biggest contract in Orioles history, suddenly got small, and stopped hitting. He did what he needed to do to get his big payday and Boros took advantage of an elderly sickly man to get this monstrous payday.

The best I can say about this situation is I'm glad it's over and I hopefully don't have to hear Davis' name again.

Ouch!

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

1 minute ago, Philip said:

Ever since Chris Davis insisted that he spent the off-season working out with the hitting coach, whose name slips me at the moment, and the hitting coach, who lived in the same town, said, “nope he never contacted me.” I have known that Davis will say whatever it is suitable for him to stay at the moment.

That was Scott Coolbaugh who set the record straight on Chris Davis' offseason workouts that amounted to him talking about his swing a couple times. 

[waroriole]

2 minutes ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

Ha, I'm trying to look at it from a more optimistic angle.

But what you're saying could be the truth, but if cash flows are really that bad then the Angelos family should just sell the team. 

I don’t disagree they should sell, but they’ve held onto the team so long, I can’t see Peter selling now. 

[LookinUp]

5 minutes ago, SteveA said:

Maybe I'm just nit-picking but...

 

So he just walked in and informed the Orioles that he was retiring?  That's how it happened?

Yet he somehow negotiated a retention of he entire salary with a deferral of the 2022 money?

No, I think he came to the Orioles and said I'll only retire if you still pay me for the rest of 2021 and 2022, and I'll toss you a bone by working out a deferral 2022 money.  They  some negotiations and came to an agreement.

And yes, I know he had no obligation to not get every cent that was guaranteed to him.   I get that and am not saying he should have. 

But if he had just limped into the warehouse on his bad hip and "informed" the Orioles that he was retiring, he WOULD in fact be forfeiting $29 million or so.   That's what retirement means.   So he shouldn't be pretending that's how it happened.   It wasn't that simple.   he went to the Orioles and said he would retire now to give them the 40 man spot and throw them a bone by deferring some money, IF they would pay his full guaranteed contract.  

Like I said, a nit pick perhaps.   But his statement is worded, probably by PR people to make the casual reader think the just decided to retire and told the Orioles, which is clearly not possible.

Just more B.S. associated with Davis.

Good on Elias for getting ownership to get rid of him. The 40 man roster spot and the cash flow are more important than continuing this ridiculous saga on any longer. I actually think this is a great day for Elias. 

[sevastras]

3 minutes ago, waroriole said:

But they don’t put it all in escrow now do they? Isn’t it required to be deposited into an account 1 year before due?

Im not sure, I think @Frobby is the expert on deferred money.  

[MurphDogg]

 

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

1 minute ago, waroriole said:

I don’t disagree they should sell, but they’ve held onto the team so long, I can’t see Peter selling now. 

Yeah as long as Peter Angelos is still alive, I don't see the Orioles getting sold. 

[foxfield]

35 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

The guy is getting all of his money. Basically the Orioles paid him to just go away. 

His legacy will be as the guy who signed the biggest contract in Orioles history, suddenly got small, and stopped hitting. He did what he needed to do to get his big payday and Boros took advantage of an elderly sickly man to get this monstrous payday.

The best I can say about this situation is I'm glad it's over and I hopefully don't have to hear Davis' name again.

Who's Name?  The first baseman.

11 minutes ago, SteveA said:

Maybe I'm just nit-picking but...

 

So he just walked in and informed the Orioles that he was retiring?  That's how it happened?

Yet he somehow negotiated a retention of he entire salary with a deferral of the 2022 money?

No, I think he came to the Orioles and said I'll only retire if you still pay me for the rest of 2021 and 2022, and I'll toss you a bone by working out a deferral 2022 money.  They  some negotiations and came to an agreement.

And yes, I know he had no obligation to not get every cent that was guaranteed to him.   I get that and am not saying he should have. 

But if he had just limped into the warehouse on his bad hip and "informed" the Orioles that he was retiring, he WOULD in fact be forfeiting $29 million or so.   That's what retirement means.   So he shouldn't be pretending that's how it happened.   It wasn't that simple.   he went to the Orioles and said he would retire now to give them the 40 man spot and throw them a bone by deferring some money, IF they would pay his full guaranteed contract.  

Like I said, a nit pick perhaps.   But his statement is worded, probably by PR people to make the casual reader think the just decided to retire and told the Orioles, which is clearly not possible.

There has been at least as much damage done to legacy by comments and lack of efforts.  Maybe it is all coincidental circumstances but I will say this...If someone were writing a movie script about a star athlete stealing millions and millions of dollars by fraud...it would look a lot like this.  

[Gurgi]

The freeing of a 40 man spot is valuable.  Might save the Orioles from losing a decent kid this offseason.  

And I am happy that this story is finally over.  It was annoying how it lingered so long. 

[spiritof66]

20 minutes ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

Ha, I'm trying to look at it from a more optimistic angle.

But what you're saying could be the truth, but if cash flows are really that bad then the Angelos family should just sell the team. 

Deferring some money is, like virtually everything else the Orioles have done over the last couple of years, consistent with an intention to sell the team upon Peter Angelos's death.

[Moose Milligan]

16 minutes ago, LookinUp said:

Just more B.S. associated with Davis.

Good on Elias for getting ownership to get rid of him. The 40 man roster spot and the cash flow are more important than continuing this ridiculous saga on any longer. I actually think this is a great day for Elias. 

...Pretty sure Davis retired.  Not the other way around.  I don't think the ownership "got rid of him" and that Elias convinced them to do it.  Had the Orioles released Davis, I'd agree.  

[DrungoHazewood]

18 minutes ago, LookinUp said:

 

 

So why did he "stop being a major league player" then? I may be oversimplifying things, but to me it's some combination of 1) he stopped doing steroids and/or 2) he stopped putting in the work.

I agree that 1 is speculation, though seeing his transformation similar to that of Bonds and McGwire post retirement gives some reason to believe that. However, 2 isn't really speculation. He's turned into a prick who openly disliked any suggestions for improvement. He finally paid lip service to it this year, but I don't believe that was real at all.

He wasn't the same guy who signed that contract almost immediately after he signed it. That's false pretenses, IMO. He gets no pass from me.

It's a lot simpler than that.  He got old for a major league player, shifts killed his batting average, and his skillset wasn't broad-based enough to compensate for lack of hand-eye coordination or focus or whatever.  Everyone loses it due to age, he just did it more suddenly than most.

He didn't go from 1.000 OPS to .500 overnight.  In 2014 he had a .704 OPS then rebounded and the Orioles and many of us chose to look at '14 as the huge outlier.  In '16 was serviceable, 110 OPS+, 38 homers, decent defense.  2017 he was below-average, but still hitting at a level like recent Miguel Cabrera or a hundred other aging sluggers.  It wasn't until '18, in year three of the deal, that he fell off the cliff. 

So this idea that he quit being a major league player when the ink was still wet on the contract just isn't correct.

[DrungoHazewood]

3 minutes ago, spiritof66 said:

Deferring some money is, like virtually everything else the Orioles have done over the last couple of years, consistent with an intention to sell the team upon Peter Angelos's death.

Or it's that the present value of paying someone $10 today is more than paying them $2 over each of the next five years.