Arizona Diamondbacks re-sign Eduardo Escobar
The Arizona Diamondbacks signed infielder Eduardo Escobar to put a positive start to their offseason
After acquiring Eduardo Escobar midseason to push for the postseason, the Arizona Diamondbacks quickly answered the question about his future with the organization by signing him to a 3 year, $21 million deal announced on Monday.
This is certainly a surprising move for many reasons…
Escobar would have been in demand
Escobar is coming off of a career year split between the Minnesota Twins and Arizona Diamondbacks. For a large chunk of the year, he led the league in doubles, falling off near the end of the season, but still finishing with an impressive 48 on the season, which placed him 2nd in all of baseball to Alex Bregman, who had 51.
Overall, Escobar hit .272/.334/.489 and with the 48 doubles, he also hit 23 home runs. He’s incredibly versatile defensively, able to handle shortstop well while also playing solid defense at third base, second base, or left field.
That sort of offensive performance, defensive flexibility, switch-hitting, and Escobar’s youth (he turns 30 in January) would make Escobar highly valued on the market. More on that in a bit…
The Arizona Diamondbacks are supposed to be rebuilding
After falling apart significantly in the second half and missing out on the playoffs, Bob Nightengale broke this news about the Diamondbacks’ intentions this offseason:
The Arizona #Dbacks could be the most popular team this winter among GMs with the Dbacks expect to strip down the team and rebuild, with virtually everyone on the trade block. They'd love to move Zack Greinke, and will even listen on franchise icon Paull Goldschmidt.
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) October 10, 2018
While Nightengale isn’t exactly always on point with this news breaking, he’s usually a “where there’s smoke…” sort of news guy, so to see the Arizona Diamondbacks be the first team to make a free agent signing is quite odd indeed!
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The money is very favorable for Arizona
Seven million dollars is not a miniscule amount, but for reference, according to his Fangraphs profile page, compared to other players at his position and their free agent dollars in recent markets, Escobar’s 2018 production was worth $27.7 million, which is more than this entire contract’s value.
If the Arizona Diamondbacks are going to go for the playoffs again, getting good value in a signing like this will be a big step, as they do need to replace outfielder A.J. Pollock as well this offseason, so getting Escobar for less than what perceived market value could be would also help them to pursue other outfield options.
Finally, the value of this contract certainly raises questions for players like Marwin Gonzalez, Jed Lowrie, Asdrubal Cabrera, Daniel Descalso, and others who are defensively flexible players that offer some offensive value and may have been hoping to cash in. Escobar was assumed (likely with Gonzalez) to be the very top of that market of player, and if this is the top of the market, many of those players could be disappointed this offseason.
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It appears at first blush that the Arizona Diamondbacks got a very good deal with Eduardo Escobar. Time will tell, of course, but striking early has typically bore out to be at least a decent monetary value.