Rays sign Longoria to long-term deal after only 6 games in the Majors

[ronnynat]

Pretty insane, IMO. Both sides should have waited.

Rays sign Longoria to multiyear contract
Nine-year deal is longest in Tampa Bay franchise history

ST. PETERSBURG -- Evan Longoria has been signed by the Rays to the longest contract in franchise history.

Friday afternoon at a news conference at Tropicana Field, the Rays and the rookie third baseman announced an agreement on a nine-year contract.

The salaries for the first six years of the agreement are guaranteed with the team holding a one-year option for 2014 season and a subsequent two-year option for the 2015 and 2016 seasons. The contract guarantees $17.5 million. If the Rays exercise both options, Longoria would earn more than $44 million over the life of the nine-year agreement.

Longoria, 22, will donate up to $725,000 during the span of the contract to the Rays Baseball Foundation, the team's charitable foundation that supports youth and education programs in the Tampa Bay region.

"In his first two years in professional baseball, Evan has displayed the talent, work ethic and maturity that we envisioned when we drafted him in 2006," said Andrew Friedman, Rays executive vice president of baseball operations. "The fans of Tampa Bay should be excited to know that Evan will be in a Rays uniform for at least the next nine seasons. It is another demonstration of our commitment to developing and retaining our burgeoning group of talented players."

Longoria would not have been eligible for free agency until after the 2014 season. But Longoria's agent, Paul Cohen, has done long-term deals with young clients in the past, such as Colorado's Troy Tulowitzki's six-year, $31-million contract.

Longoria batted .262 (11-for-42) with three home runs, 10 RBIs, a .407 on-base pct. and a .595 slugging mark in 20 games with the Rays in Spring Training. He began the season at Triple-A Durham before he was promoted to the Major League club on April 12, when Willy Aybar was placed on the 15-day disabled list.

http://tampabay.rays.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080418&content_id=2546402&vkey=news_tb&fext=.jsp&c_id=tb

[spidernat]

It's a nice guarantee for Longoria. He has financial stability whether he makes it or not. If he pans out it's a bargain for the Rays. If he winds up being a great player he will still be able to get one big contract at age 31 or perhaps even gain leverage for early renegotiation. I can what you mean about waiting though. But Longoria got himself a nice insurance policy.

[daveb32]

I don't know, there's a huge upside and a huge downside to this approach. If he is all that he is claimed to be, he will be in his prime making what, 6 or 7 million dollars a year? Putting up, according to them, A-Rod type numbers? That's the steal of the century. If he doesn't pan out, which is unlikely IMO, then the Rays are have to buy this guy out for 44mil or pay him that much to ride the pine. I think the upside is a lot more likely to happen then the downside, so I honestly think it's a good move.

[ronnynat]

I just think the best move would have been to wait until the end of the season to make a deal if they really felt like one had to be made so soon.

[daveb32]

I just think the best move would have been to wait until the end of the season to make a deal if they really felt like one had to be made so soon.

Not necessarily. I've only seen this guy play a bit, but I've seen flashes of a super star. How many 22 year olds do you know have over a 1000 OPS? I know it's spring training, but you don't have to look very far to see that this guy can flat out rake. If Longoria hits similar numbers to Ryan Zimmerman in his rookie year, he's going to be asking for a lot more than 6 million dollars a year.

But, like I said, it really is hit or miss.

[ronnynat]

Not necessarily. I've only seen this guy play a bit, but I've seen flashes of a super star. How many 22 year olds do you know have over a 1000 OPS? I know it's spring training, but you don't have to look very far to see that this guy can flat out rake. If Longoria hits similar numbers to Ryan Zimmerman in his rookie year, he's going to be asking for a lot more than 6 million dollars a year.

But, like I said, it really is hit or miss.

You're thinking more from the team's POV, while I'm thinking of it from both. If Longoria plays consistently the way he did in ST and in the minors, it's a steal for the Rays, but Longoria probably should have waited. If he doesn't play well or gets injured (Rocco Baldelli-style), then the team should have waited and Longoria might be making out better.

Waiting until the end of the season would have been the better idea for both sides if this long of a deal had to be made. If Longoria ends up being an average everyday 3B, then this deal makes sense for both sides.

[tomterp]

I like those sorts of deals.   Rays get a discounted price, Longoria gets a certain minimum level of earnings that's more than most of us can dream of.

[daveb32]

You're thinking more from the team's POV, while I'm thinking of it from both. If Longoria plays consistently the way he did in ST and in the minors, it's a steal for the Rays, but Longoria probably should have waited. If he doesn't play well or gets injured (Rocco Baldelli-style), then the team should have waited and Longoria might be making out better.

Waiting until the end of the season would have been the better idea for both sides if this long of a deal had to be made. If Longoria ends up being an average everyday 3B, then this deal makes sense for both sides.

Actually I think it's right for both sides. It's both hit or miss for Longoria and the Rays. For Longoria it's a REAL nice insurance policy if he does run into the injury bug a la Rocco Baldelli. I think waiting until the end of the season would only benefit Longoria and not the team itself.

[ronnynat]

I think waiting until the end of the season would only benefit Longoria and not the team itself.

Which is kind of why it doesn't make sense to me. From what people have said about this guy, waiting one season probably would have gotten him more than Tulowitzki.

It is nice to know at least one guy will be on a team for a LONG time. That doesn't happen very often in baseball anymore. Especially w/ young players.

[xposbrad]

I don't know if any of you have been following Evan but this is a win win deal for him and for the rays. Longoria is going to be a solid player. The only question is how big is his upside but with rising salaries this DEFINITELY works out for the rays. They lock up a top prospect for quite a while, without having to worry about taking him to arb every year and guessing what his salary might be. They now have him budgeted and locked up at a great price for a while. Look at all these new kids, the papelbons and stuff who nag when they get their under 1m salary after playing what, like 2-3 years. Anyways, I don't see any downside to Longoria, he's solid defensively and he's definitely a great hitter, I'm sure he will regret the contract in like 3 years but the Rays got quite a good deal on this.

[daveb32]

His agent is definitely not Scott Boras.

[soxfan59]

The Indians made a habit of this sort of thing in the 90s -- sign your young players with big futures to long term deals.  It helped make the Indians competitive for many, many years.

[KnorrForYourMoney]

The Rays are only spending $17.5 mil on this.  Even if Longoria is a total bust and they keep him in the minors for the remainder of his contract, they're still only paying what they would if they were to sign some big name free agent to a one year deal only to have said free agent completely bust.  I think it's a fantastic deal for the Rays.  Considering how low their payroll is, they can definitely afford it.

[tomterp]

The Indians made a habit of this sort of thing in the 90s -- sign your young players with big futures to long term deals.  It helped make the Indians competitive for many, many years.

Is it risky?  Of course it is.  But there's no other way for a low-mid revenue team to have a star player in his prime, on the field.  If you don't take the chance to lock them up early, they walk for the big $ later. 

There's obvious downside risk, in that if you bet wrong with a couple of these deals, you have an albatross around your neck.

[KnorrForYourMoney]

This kind of deal doesn't even seem that risky.  17.5 is the going rate for one year of an elite free agent these days, so in terms of relative cost, this is very small.  If a team does this with one or two elite youngsters every so often, they can build a really good, young core in a very efficient manner.

[soxfan59]

This kind of deal doesn't even seem that risky.  17.5 is the going rate for one year of an elite free agent these days, so in terms of relative cost, this is very small.  If a team does this with one or two elite youngsters every so often, they can build a really good, young core in a very efficient manner.

There's another upside to this deal, in that it sends a positive message to the Tampa Bay fan base.  In the past, the Rays couldn't hang on to their young, home grown talent.  This says, "We have a potential superstar -- we aren't letting him sign with the Red Sox of Yankees.  We want to build a team around these kinds of players."