Oakland Athletics Dangled “Cespedes-Type” Money at Edwin Encarnacion
By Jason Burke
The Oakland Athletics have never been spenders near the top of the market, but according to reports the A’s offered Edwin Encarnacion big money to make his home in Oakland.
“Cespedes-type money” has been a common phrase when it comes to the offer that Encarnacion rejected from the Oakland Athletics. While it’s not hard to surmise exactly what that means (Yoenis Cespedes signed a four year, $110M contract with the New York Mets earlier this winter), there is some wriggle room. Encarnacion agreed to a three year, $60M contract with the Cleveland Indians on Thursday night that includes an option for a fourth season. If you take the Cespedes comparison at face value, it looks as though Encarncaion turned down an extra $50M to not have to play for the A’s.
After Matt Holliday signed with the New York Yankees this offseason, it was reported that he has a no-trade clause that covers all of one team–the Oakland Athletics. Again, at face value, it appears as though nobody wants to come to Oakland to play some ball.
Instead, what has actually happened was that (as Joe Stiglich of CSN Bay Area reports) the A’s offered Encarnacion a similar average annual value to what Cespedes received, which comes out to $27.5M, but didn’t go past two years with their offer. Overall, it’s less money and less security than the deal Cleveland put out there, and in professional sports the more guaranteed money you can latch onto the better.
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Encarnacion’s agent, Paul Kinzer (live from a ferris wheel at Six Flags) had this to say of the A’s push for his client: “Billy Beane, when he decided to play poker, he came all in,” Kinzer said. “He came in and made it really tough, he threw out some Cespedes-type offers, you know, with higher AAV, and Edwin turned down more money (from the A’s). But it wasn’t anything against Oakland. With Edwin it’s more about comfort, and the travel, and his family’s in the Dominican. That weighed heavily in his decision. It came down to location and the type of team Cleveland has. He just played them in the playoffs. He knows the quality of team they had.”
The bigger question now, as it has been all offseason in Oakland, is whether or not the A’s are ready to start actually spending some money. After shaking up the front office, it looks as though a resolution to their ballpark dilemma may be within reach, and with this news that they’re willing to make big time offers to big time free agents, it’s certainly a brighter day in Oakland.
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One way to start on that brighter day path would be to lock up Sonny Gray for a few extra years. Of course, with his struggles last season, this could be a mid-season announcement once the A’s ace returns to form, just to soothe some doubts. Just two months ago this thought was preposterous and to put it on the internet would have been suicide. Now it appears that there may be some hope for the A’s and their fans in locking up some of their fan favorites, as long as they’re productive assets. Moneyball can’t go too far away.