Matt Wieters, Baltimore Orioles in no rush to discuss extension
By Aaron Somers
There’s no questioning how much value Matt Wieters brings to the Baltimore Orioles, even after the team was able to push through his loss this past season and still go on to win the AL East. The six year veteran has been a key piece of the club’s lineup in recent years and a prominent presence behind the plate defensively. Wieters is scheduled to be a free agent at the end of the 2015 season, leaving Baltimore with a decision that will need to be made in the coming months.
An extension before he reaches the open market remains possible, but unlikely, as the Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo writes:
"There seems no urgency on either side – agent Scott Boras or the Orioles – to visit a possible extension for the backstop, who missed most of last season after Tommy John surgery. Wieters’ return should be huge for the Orioles, but Boras will likely not consider anything until the end of the season."
Baltimore originally drafted Wieters with the 5th overall selection in the 2007 draft. Since first arriving in the Major Leagues in 2009, Wieters has been one of the more consistently productive catchers in baseball. He’s a career .257/.320/.423 hitter who has averaged 30 doubles, 22 home runs, and 82 RBI a year. He hit .308/.339/.500 this past season, but was limited to just 112 plate appearances in 26 games before the team shut him down with an elbow injury that ultimately lead to surgery.
It took a trio of players to replace Wieters following the injury, none of whom stood out individually. Caleb Joseph hit .207/.264/.354 in 275 plate appearances. Nick Hundley batted .233/.273/.352 in 174 PA. Steve Clevenger put in a .225/.289.337 line in 97 PA. Collectively the group hit 21 doubles, 14 home runs, and drove in 65 runs. The production wasn’t significant – the group combined to produce 1.2 bWAR on the year, where Wieters had 0.7 bWAR in his 26 games before the injury.
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The Orioles received enough from the group, however, that they were able to still win the AL East for the first time since the mid-1990s. This coming year will be different. Hundley is expected to depart via free agency for another opportunity. Joseph and Clevenger will likely battle for a backup role behind Wieters, with the loser remaining at Triple-A for organizational depth.
Wieters earned $7.7 million this past season and will go through arbitration one last time before Spring Training. MLB Trade Rumors projects that he’ll see a slight bump to $7.9 million for the 2015 season.
Predicting what an extension between the two sides might look like is no easy challenge. There are few big name catchers who’ve reached free agency in recent years, let alone those that have done so with Boras as their agent. Yadier Molina will average $14.33 million over the next three seasons. He’s superior defensively and gets on base more than Wieters, but hits for less power. Russell Martin just signed a deal that will pay him an average of $16.4 million a year over the next five seasons. His career numbers are close to Wieters’, but he was also coming off a superb season in 2014 before hitting the open market. Figuring that the two could serve as a benchmark for negotiations to begin and factoring in Wieters’ age – he’ll turn 29 in May – he could be looking at a deal in the neighborhood of at least five years, $75 million if he were to hit the open market. If he comes back fully healthy and produces a solid season in 2015, that figure will only increase.