Empty Stands Like Whoa - Credit AP
My last piece discussed the surprisingly strong April MLB attendance figures. Number weren’t rosy for all teams, however, as the Nats, Tigers, Blue Jays, Braves, and Astros have all seen significant early season drops. Those squads are the teams most likely interested in dumping salary mid season in an effort to decrease their payrolls.
The very reason why these teams are having trouble filling their seats is very correlated with the lack of movable contracts on these teams. With the exception of the Braves, they overspent on players over the last several years and as a result had no flexibility to sign new free agents. Thus they field pathetic teams, and the fans don’t want to waste their time or money coming to the park to watch their dreadful squad.
The Tigers are the worst offenders of the bunch. Take a look at these contracts they have on the books, and while most are ending in the next year or two, this isn’t the NBA where Expiring Contracts have immense value. Magglio Ordonez: $36M in ‘09 & ‘10 (option almost certainly will auto-kick-in based on plate appearances), Jeremy Bonderman: $25M ‘09 & ‘10, Carlos Guillen: $36M through 2011, Nate Robertson: $17M ‘09 & ‘10, Dontrelle Willis: $22M ‘09 & ‘10. Not one of those contracts is movable at this point without the Tigers paying a boat load of what remains.
Here are the 5 Guys (Burgers & Fries, Burgers & Fries?) from those teams that may be traded come June or July. Actually there are only 4, as I couldn’t find 5 contracts that would save their current team meaningful money and represent an upgrade for potential contenders:
Scott Downs, RP Toronto Blue Jays: Owed less than $4M per this season and next, Downs has been downright excellent posting sub 2.00 ERAs over the last 2+ seasons. He has proven he can close games if needed and his 1+ K/inning is excellent.
Miguel Tejada, SS Houston Astros: Tejada is owed $13M this season, which is a bit steep for his production. However, come mid July he will be owed less than $6.5M for the rest of the season and could provide a team with some pop. He still flirts with .300 and hit 38 doubles last season. Would he be open to playing some 3B for a ring? Maybe not, but its possible.
Jose Valverde, RP, Houston Astros: Valverde has $9M coming to him this season after signing a one year deal during the offseason. While shaky at times, he has proven he can take on the closer role, and would be a devastating set up man – just the type of guy the Yanks love to acquire come July.
LaTroy Hawkins, RP, Houston Astros: LaTroy’s one year contract for $3.5M could provide good value to a needy bullpen. Bullpen help is always needed come the dog days of summer (hence 3 on this list). The old axiom you can never have too much pitching certainly applies to bullpens. He posted a .43 ERA last year with more than one strikeout per inning, and has started nicely this season with a few saves in fill-in duty for Valverde.
