Eric Hosmer Difficult Contract Negotiation

[Brettford]

In my dynasty Eric Hosmer has Super 2 status and is up for arbitration. The expected 1 year contract in arbitration is $5.5m. I would love to sign him to a deal that buys out all 4 years of arbitration and the first 1-3 years of free agency if I could get away with it.

However, he only wants to discuss a 1 year deal for $10m. I have offered him 7-9 year deals at that salary, but he just goes back to his 1 year demand.

I have 4 questions:

1) Is his demand completely unrealistic (since a team would never pay him more than he will get in arbitration without at least getting a multi-year term)? Or is there some scenario where this would actually happen?

2) Are there cases where a player simply will not move off of their 1 year demand or will sweetening the pot ultimately prevail?

3) Any advice on how to deal with this? My inclination is to simply go to arbitration and pay him ~$5.5m and try to work out a longer term deal next year. I am assuming his arbitration ramp will look something like: $5.5, 6.5, 7.5, 8.5. And in FA I believe he could get ~$15m.

4) How much of a leash do I have in terms of negotiating with him? I realize that low balling him on salary repeatedly is likely to wear thin and I don't want to piss him off. But will he get upset if I keep offering different variations of LT big money deals just because he wants a 1 year deal?

[SandMan]

Originally Posted by Brettford

In my dynasty Eric Hosmer has Super 2 status and is up for arbitration. The expected 1 year contract in arbitration is $5.5m. I would love to sign him to a deal that buys out all 4 years of arbitration and the first 1-3 years of free agency if I could get away with it.

However, he only wants to discuss a 1 year deal for $10m. I have offered him 7-9 year deals at that salary, but he just goes back to his 1 year demand.

I have 4 questions:

1) Is his demand completely unrealistic (since a team would never pay him more than he will get in arbitration without at least getting a multi-year term)? Or is there some scenario where this would actually happen?

His asking price is too high so it would be a bit unrealistic. This happens sometimes in real life but I find it foolish since you can sign him for less in arbitration.


2) Are there cases where a player simply will not move off of their 1 year demand or will sweetening the pot ultimately prevail?

He may not move off his demands but the odds are he will otherwise you can just let him go to arbitration each year. He will make less going to arbitration but he may not sign with you when he becomes a free agent.

3) Any advice on how to deal with this? My inclination is to simply go to arbitration and pay him ~$5.5m and try to work out a longer term deal next year. I am assuming his arbitration ramp will look something like: $5.5, 6.5, 7.5, 8.5. And in FA I believe he could get ~$15m.

See below. I have signed a lot of players offering just a few hundred thousand over their arbitration amounts for long term contracts and it works.

4) How much of a leash do I have in terms of negotiating with him? I realize that low balling him on salary repeatedly is likely to wear thin and I don't want to piss him off. But will he get upset if I keep offering different variations of LT big money deals just because he wants a 1 year deal?

He may get pissed and give you the old "Sorry but I won't deal with you" message.

Try offering him a 4 year deal for around $5.8M per year. I am guessing that he will take it. He doesn't want to have a contract going into his FA years so a 4 year offer will bring him through his arbitration years.

[JMDurron]

Originally Posted by SandMan

Try offering him a 4 year deal for around $5.8M per year. I am guessing that he will take it. He doesn't want to have a contract going into his FA years so a 4 year offer will bring him through his arbitration years.

Echoing this point, I run into this all the time. Some players will sign long term deals, but the arb-eligible players who won't will still take 4 year deals (no longer, period.) at a reasonable rate. Try starting the 5.25M range, and I expect you'll end up around 5.8 as SandMan has predicted.

[BIG17EASY]

Originally Posted by SandMan

Try offering him a 4 year deal for around $5.8M per year. I am guessing that he will take it. He doesn't want to have a contract going into his FA years so a 4 year offer will bring him through his arbitration years.

This would be a steal considering he'll presumably do better than that if he goes to arbitration each year.

But if I was you, I'd just go to arbitration this year and try again next year. There's really no rush to get him signed long-term since he's still under your control for four more years. If you hit that final year and he's still unwilling to negotiate long-term, then you'll pretty much know that he doesn't want to play in KC and plans to test the FA market.

But if you're able to build a winning team around him, maybe he'll decide he likes KC and decide in 3-4 years that he wants to stay there.

[cblacker]

Scott Boras probably has him convinced he can get $35 million per year on the free agent market.