Russell Martin charged for robbery

[jdwills126]

Stupid contract!

Decent catchers can be found via trade or FA after spring training when veterans loose their job. Blue Jays must feel they have to over pay to get guys to go North into a unfriendly tax environment.

 

[tducey]

Yeah, Toronto overpaid big time for this guy. If they want to spend money spend it on another bat and another arm.

 

[Arizona_Sting]

Martin is an elite defensive catcher, near the top as a receiver, a blocker, and controlling the running game. Everything that makes a catcher inherently valuable, Martin does well. On his defense alone, he's worth probably about $10 million a year, even if he couldn't hit a lick.

But he's also about an average to slightly above average hitter relative to the entire league for his career, whose success is largely tied up in his eye and on-base skill, which makes him unlikely to decline appreciably offensively as he ages. No, he's not going to replicate last season. Yes, he is probably going to get on base 35% of the time moving forward and remain an average or better hitter.

But that makes him elite as a hitter at his position. And since you're not going to sign a first baseman by trade to play catcher, he'll get paid like an elite offensive catcher.

For probably the first three years of the deal, this contract will be pretty good for the Jays, honestly. It's the last two that are going to be painful. But, hey, they had a need at the position, and they went out aggressively and filled it. Good on them for it.

He will being making more than Yadier Molina and 0.5 mil less than Buster Posey.

I've seen this happen year after year... guy has 'breakout' season in his contract year, desperate team overpays that aging player. This contract is a joke. Can't wait to bump this thread in the future.

 

[gowazzu02]

Why did he get it? Because Baseball.............

 

[Mondo Jay]

It seems almost everyone overpays for free agents. This is a prime example of giving a 5 year deal to get 3 productive years out of a player.

 

[Mondo Jay]

Why did he get it? Because Baseball.............

......is rolling in tons of money.

 

[gowazzu02]

......is rolling in tons of money.

Hey Id love for my Mariners to overspend in FA., How many years now has "the mythical 100 million dollar payroll" been the mark of a team "spending" vs not spending.

Go try to win,

 

[Darkstone42]

He will being making more than Yadier Molina and 0.5 mil less than Buster Posey.

I've seen this happen year after year... guy has 'breakout' season in his contract year, desperate team overpays that aging player. This contract is a joke. Can't wait to bump this thread in the future.

Prices inflate, and those contracts were signed before Martin's, so obviously, given they're all at the top of their position, their contracts are going to be in the same range. And Molina's deal is kind of a bargain, so I don't know what you're getting at here.

 

[Arizona_Sting]

Prices inflate, and those contracts were signed before Martin's, so obviously, given they're all at the top of their position, their contracts are going to be in the same range. And Molina's deal is kind of a bargain, so I don't know what you're getting at here.

He's getting elite catcher money and he's not an elite catcher. That's what I'm getting at. We'll get a better idea of what the current market value is when Lucroy gets his next contract though.

 

[Darkstone42]

He's getting elite catcher money and he's not an elite catcher. That's what I'm getting at. We'll get a better idea of what the current market value is when Lucroy gets his next contract though.

An above average hitter, an elite framer, an elite blocker, and elite at controlling the running game, Russell Martin is an elite catcher. Since 2010, he's 12th in wRC+, and the 11 ahead of him include three who have moved to first base full time, more or less, and two more who start a significant number of games there. Martin is just behind Molina in the run control portion of the game, and his blocking is top five. He's also an excellent receiver. Lucroy is a better framer, but poorer at controlling the running game, for example, so they're close to a wash defensively.

In the AL, he might be the best catcher. Sal Perez and Yan Gomes are the only other two who have any claim to that title besides Martin, unless McCann's bat comes back in a big way. In The NL, he was the fourth best catcher, probably, behind Molina, Lucroy, and Posey. At worst, he's the sixth best catcher in baseball. At best, he's third. And he's been doing it for years.

He's elite.

 

[jdwills126]

The three years prior to 2014 he didn't hit over .240. A contract year he hits .290?

I would be cautious as it looks lie the Jays are getting an older version Alex Avila.

 

[redseat]

LOL Toronto. This will be up there for one of the worst contracts in baseball in a couple years. WTF were they thinking?

5 years/82 million for a 32 YEAR OLD catcher that has been an average to mediocre hitter for his entire career? Falling in love with numbers that he put up in a contract year is very foolish on their part. Is he good defensively? Yes. But they will regret this very, very much. Mark my words.

Dear lord I saw they signed him but for 5 years. wtf?!? At least they didn't pay him $325 million... Now the marlins are the idiots!

 

[Arizona_Sting]

An above average hitter, an elite framer, an elite blocker, and elite at controlling the running game, Russell Martin is an elite catcher. Since 2010, he's 12th in wRC+, and the 11 ahead of him include three who have moved to first base full time, more or less, and two more who start a significant number of games there. Martin is just behind Molina in the run control portion of the game, and his blocking is top five. He's also an excellent receiver. Lucroy is a better framer, but poorer at controlling the running game, for example, so they're close to a wash defensively.

In the AL, he might be the best catcher. Sal Perez and Yan Gomes are the only other two who have any claim to that title besides Martin, unless McCann's bat comes back in a big way. In The NL, he was the fourth best catcher, probably, behind Molina, Lucroy, and Posey. At worst, he's the sixth best catcher in baseball. At best, he's third. And he's been doing it for years.

He's elite.

No. No. NO. Nononono.

 

[gvsulaker82]

LOL Toronto. This will be up there for one of the worst contracts in baseball in a couple years. WTF were they thinking?

5 years/82 million for a 32 YEAR OLD catcher that has been an average to mediocre hitter for his entire career? Falling in love with numbers that he put up in a contract year is very foolish on their part. Is he good defensively? Yes. But they will regret this very, very much. Mark my words.

Its a bad deal unfortunately most deals nowadays are. Mlb probably could use some sort of salary cap, its getting ridiculous and harder to be a fan. I havent forgotten 1994 and there are many more people out there that actually deserve to be paid good money for what they do.

 

[element1286]

Whether or not you agree that Martin is elite, his per year value is fairly close, just the length is ridiculous.

3/48 would have been a good deal, but free agents get overpaid, especially term.

 

[Cyder]

Hey Id love for my Mariners to overspend in FA., How many years now has "the mythical 100 million dollar payroll" been the mark of a team "spending" vs not spending.

Go try to win,

They overspent on Cano.

 

[DaBoltsNIsles]

LOL Toronto. This will be up there for one of the worst contracts in baseball in a couple years. WTF were they thinking?

5 years/82 million for a 32 YEAR OLD catcher that has been an average to mediocre hitter for his entire career? Falling in love with numbers that he put up in a contract year is very foolish on their part. Is he good defensively? Yes. But they will regret this very, very much. Mark my words.

From what I understand the Cubs wanted Martin. The Blue Jays should have let Theo have him for that kind of money.

 

[Darkstone42]

No. No. NO. Nononono.

If you weight receiving heavily enough, he can surpass Posey, yes. I would put him fourth, personally, behind Lucroy, Molina, and Posey, in that order, but the argument can be made that he's third. Either way, he's a top catcher, and he's probably going to be good for upwards of 3 wins a season (which value around $18 million) for the first three years of that deal. The next two, he'll likely be overpaid, as he'll probably drop to about 1.5-2 wins, depending on how many games he can catch.

 

[podsox]

Whether or not you agree that Martin is elite, his per year value is fairly close, just the length is ridiculous.

3/48 would have been a good deal, but free agents get overpaid, especially term.

his career numbers look solid because he had great numbers early in his career. the 5 yrs before this past season were pretty awful.

 

[Burghfan]

From what I understand the Cubs wanted Martin. The Blue Jays should have let Theo have him for that kind of money.

Pirates wanted Martin too and their qualifying offer for a year was close to the yearly amount he signed for. The problem was they only wanted him for 2 or 3 years because they have a couple good catchers coming up.

He played very well for Pittsburgh and he added a lot of things to the team that can't be quantified. I personally think that he was the reason the Pirates had the winning seasons for the last two years. We'll find out next year.