Trading players in year 1 of 8. Common?

[pgjocki]

So I am continuing on with the Tribe after winning the World Series and at the next years trading deadline I have some dead-weight to cut. One player who needs to go is Asdrubal Cabrera, a guy who I gave a 8 year extension during the offseason.

I signed him to an 8 year deal at $13 million per year and he is doing everything to drive me crazy and not be worthy of a minor league deal. My question is, can I realistically trade him and walk away from the last 7 years of his contract? I know that the game will let me, but is it something that would ever happen or has happened?

BTW, as a SS in 64 games he has made 17 errors, batted average of .196 with 49 strikeouts. This guy is literally killing me and my chances at making the playoffs...

[The Wolf]

Bad player to sign.

Asdrubal Cabrera strikes out - Beyond the Box Score

[byzeil]

First. The standard answer....It is your game, do as you wish.

But to answer your question; Is it common to trade such a player with such a contract? No. I highly doubt you would find another human GM who would take the contract off your hands. You can probably get an AI team to take it but if it were a person on the other end of the negotiations I highly doubt it.

[Nunyer]

If you would make the deal as the GM of the other team, then make the deal. That's always been my rule of thumb.

That said, I think you'd have to eat somebody else's crappy contract in return before it would pass that test... I wouldn't likely take on 7 years and $80m in salary for a player having the worst year of their career... at least not without unloading a similar amount of bad money of my own.

But historically speaking, the Jays managed to unload over $80m worth of Vernon Wells... so anything is possible.

[The Wolf]

Vernon Wells - over the last three seasons, ~$68 million dollars for ~0.8 WAR. Another argument against offering long-term contracts to aging players.

[jaa36]

First of all, never give an 8-year extension to Asdrubal Cabrera.

Second of all, this is pretty much what the Marlins did with Jose Reyes and Mark Buehrle, signing them to long-term deals and dumping them after the first year. So, if you view yourself as a Jeffrey Loria type, then have at it.

[Lukas Berger]

Originally Posted by pgjocki

Asdrubal Cabrera, a guy who I gave a 8 year extension during the offseason.

I signed him to an 8 year deal at $13 million per year

Why

That being said, to answer your question, it's not common at all. And just one bad 64 game stretch means nothing in and of itself. It's probably just a slump. If he played well for you before, then keep him. Bench him for a bit if you must, but don't overreact to a bad stretch from someone who was apparently a key player on your World Series winning team.

Though that is probably a contract you'll want to get rid of sooner or later.

[The Wolf]

Originally Posted by jaa36

First of all, never give an 8-year extension

Fixed that for you

[Nunyer]

Originally Posted by The Wolf

Bad player to sign.

Asdrubal Cabrera strikes out - Beyond the Box Score

Well, in fairness to Asdrubal... none of his current struggles would be in play for OOTP, which would have been based on 2012 and prior. While he's clearly having a down year IRL, three of the last four seasons he was worth 4-5 wins. That will earn you an eight digit a year contract... maybe not for 8 years... but I don't consider $13m per year too outrageous. Granted he's likely not going to be guy who hits 20HR a season when his career is all said and done... so his WAR is probably more accurately projected in the 3-3.5 range... but even that is a $10m per year player at current market rates. He's still only 27 years old and will be playing for a contract next year.

All that said, the only time I'll ever hand out an eight year deal in OOTP is if I develop some home grown superstud who is 25 years old or younger.

[struggles_mightily]

Yeah, it's not realistic and I don't think I'd do it myself. Not sure under what circumstances I would give out an 8-year deal to a 27 year-old.

Buuuut, I actually have gotten close. After the 2013 season I re-signed Jacoby Ellsbury to a 4/40 deal, and then traded him next offseason. I did it because his scouted rating at CF dropped suddenly from a 7 to a 3, making him basically unusable (started as the Sox in 2012, so Carl Crawford's truly unmoveable deal is manning LF).

I justified that because of the sudden ratings drop, the fact that it was 'only' 3/30 left and because it's believable that some other team might differ in their opinion of Jacoby's defensive chops (dealt him to Detroit for a C-prospect, and the Tigers don't seem to care too much about defense).

I'm slightly ashamed of that, but I think moving a seven year overpay would be a step too far. It bothers me when I see stars on big contracts dealt between AI teams (Fielder, Cabrera and Darvish have all been flipped in my game), so I'd prefer not to contribute to that issue.

[Cras]

8 year contract..........I think I am going to be sick.

[pgjocki]

Thanks everyone for the feedback, to recap I made the following moves and learned a couple of lessons:

Moves:

1) Benched Cabrera for two weeks to allow him some time to ponder why he suddenly forgot how to play baseball. (didn't work)

2) Designated him for assignment to AAA after 5 more games of horrific play. (still didn't work, he couldn't beat out the scrub there for everyday playing time)

3) Called up two young guys and gave them a chance. (they performed better but not at Cabrera's 2014 numbers)

4) Missed the playoffs and now with a mad owner just one year removed from the World Series will trade Cabrera and $10 million cash to take Beltre's contract. (will see how this pans out)

Lessons learned:

1) Never overpay for past performance. While I consider 27 years old to be a good age for a position player who might have between 7-10 years left it doesn't make much sense to be paying max dollars for the backend of that deal.

2) Never give into the players demands for a long term deal. I think my new house rule will be 5 years max on any deal.

3) I don't want to be the Marlins, which means if I make a poor decision then I have to live with it unless I am willing to trade for another teams bad deal.

4) Have patience through slumps...but this is extremely hard when dealing with a position player with a negative WAR. I called up two guys from AA who both played better defense and had a higher batting average to finish the season off.

[TGH-Adfabre]

I have offered a 7 or 8 year contract to 1 35 year old SP.
Worked out great.
Actually, I have done it 3 times, I am batting .666 on those contracts.