TAMPA – A desperate team and equally desperate player agreed to help each other Wednesday.
Recognizing a rotation crisis that jeopardized their season from the start, the Braves signed Ervin Santana to a one-year, $14.1 million contract. Thus ended an unemployment that clearly had unnerved Santana, who recently fired one of his agents.
It also meant an NL East club had acted boldly to grab one of the remaining qualified-offer free agents and, in the case of Atlanta, swell its payroll to about $110 million. The Mets, with a payroll just north of $85 million, have continued to monitor another qualified-offer free agent, Stephen Drew, but to date have not been willing to offer even $10 million for one season. All indications are they do not plan to spend any more significant dollars prior to the season, but perhaps the Santana-Braves deal will force some re-evaluation.
Atlanta is the defending NL East champs, but it was facing a potential horror show to begin the year.
Kris Medlen was expected to be Atlanta’s Opening Day starter, but he left a start earlier this week with what upon first examination was reported as ligament damage near the elbow. He is scheduled to see Dr. James Andrews for a second opinion and could be facing season-ending Tommy John surgery.
Brandon Beachy, who has missed most of the last two seasons due to elbow problems, left a start earlier this week, as well, with elbow pain. Mike Minor was already slowed in spring because he had a urinary tract operation Dec. 31 and then suffered from shoulder pain during the spring.
That meant three-fifths of the projected rotation was in peril of not being ready for the start of the season — and what’s worse, it left just the young duo of Julio Teheran and Alex Wood from the original starting five. Freddy Garcia and David Hale could fill two slots and now Santana will be installed, as well. Atlanta signed Gavin Floyd for $4 million in the offseason, but he is rehabbing still after Tommy John surgery and not due back until May at the earliest.
Santana had a strong season (9-10, 3.24 ERA) for the Royals last year. But he turned down the qualifying offer, which was $14.1 million, to test free agency. At the outset of the process, his agents were trying to make the case why Santana deserved a long-term deal worth $112 million.
But having the qualifying offer has proved to be a strong deterrent against signing good, but not great, players such as Santana, because it means the loss of either a first- or second-round pick (Atlanta loses the 26th pick in the first round). In addition, there has been concern about the state of Santana’s elbow because of how much he threw his slider last year. Plus, as recently as the end of the 2012 season, the Angels were thinking of non-tendering Santana (he had a 5.16 ERA that year and allowed 39 homers) before being able to trade him to the Royals.
All of that damaged his market and kept a quality starter unemployed. With the market depressed, the Blue Jays, Orioles and Twins all expressed interest. But a person involved in the process said that, all things being equal, the righty preferred to pitch in the NL, where he is more likely to excel and set himself up for free agency again.
Santana, 31, could have waited until the day after the season began, at which point he could not be given a qualifying offer again next offseason. However, he appeared antsy to do a deal now and willing to gamble on himself. In addition, the Braves have long been a cautious team with payroll, staying in the $90 million range. They moved to about $110 million to sign Santana. But they would seem more unlikely to risk giving the qualifying offer (which should rise to about $15 million) to him after this season than, say, the Blue Jays or Orioles because for 2015 they already have Justin Upton, B.J. Upton and Dan Uggla signed for a combined $42 million with Craig Kimbrel, Freddie Freeman and Justin Heyward due substantial raises.
The signing of Santana leaves Drew and Kendry Morales as the lone qualifying-offer free agents available. Both are Scott Boras clients, and Boras has waited for a Braves-like situation to arise for a team at shortstop or first base to see whether he could get his clients a job and salary he believes proper.
Will the Mets blink on Drew?