JJ Contract Extension Watch

[wanks1212]

BY CLARK SPENCER
cspencer@MiamiHerald.com

INDIANAPOLIS -- It could be days -- even hours -- before Dan Uggla, Matt Lindstrom and Renyel Pinto are Marlins no more. Josh Johnson, on the other hand, could still be looking at years, though that prospect remains slim.

Trade talks for Uggla, Lindstrom and Pinto continued Tuesday at the winter meetings. And the Marlins reestablished contact with Johnson's agent, Matt Sosnick, after talks over a long-term contract broke down two weeks ago.

``We're open to it,'' Larry Beinfest, the Marlins' president of baseball operations, told reporters about a potential long-term deal involving Johnson. ``I don't know what Matt and J.J. are thinking, but we're open to it.''

However, Sosnick said the Marlins only mentioned a one-year contract for the upcoming 2010 season when they spoke with him last, and he wasn't optimistic about a long-term deal getting done. Sosnick has said if the club has any intention of keeping Johnson long-term, he'll accept nothing less than a four-year deal.

``We're sort of dancing to their beat,'' Sosnick said. ``But we're just talking about a one-year deal. There hasn't been any talk about a multiyear deal.''

Johnson remains in club control the next two seasons, after which he'll become eligible for free agency. Beinfest said there's always a chance the Marlins could try again to sign Johnson long-term after the 2010 season.

``The only rule we have, generally, is we don't do long-term deals that don't include free agency,'' Beinfest said.

One media outlet reported Tuesday that the Texas Rangers had offered two of their top prospects, first baseman Justin Smoak and right-hander Neftali Feliz, for Johnson. But there are strong hints the Marlins are not interested in dealing any of their starters, which they consider vital to success.

Uggla, Lindstrom and Pinto, on the other hand, are a different story.

The Marlins have spoken to a handful of teams about Uggla, their All-Star second baseman. Lindstrom, a hard-throwing reliever, has generated even more interest.

The Giants, Orioles and Red Sox are among the teams that have expressed interest in Uggla.

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/ba...y/1372508.html

[Fishfan79]

ok tjfla u keep it 2 urself

dont see a problem with him posting what he wants, he isnt harming anyone either way dude, not a biggie

[Swifty]

Clearly Clark Spencer doesn't understand "busy" means that the 4 year deal is done. Nor does Matt Sosnick understand that by 1 we obviously mean 4.

[lou]

This is also the same team that said no to Kemp/Billingsley/Loney at the trade deadline for Cabrera, and then traded him for a third of that in the offseason.

Really?

Being fair, Maybin has always been higher regarded than Kemp (who I don't understand why is touted as a superstar with an .842 OPS, with heavy lefty splits. He's good, not great. He's great in FANTASY baseball but that's it), and Miller was at the same prospect level if not higher than Bill. Yea, so far it's worked out significantly with the LA players, but I can't fault them for going Maybin/Miller. And I don't think it's crazy to think Maybin can at least match Kemp down the road or turn out better, and Miller becoming productive even if he isn't dominant like Bills. And Loney is whatever. He's Gaby Sanchez. Literally. Who cares about him.

Just saying, that a third of that is wrong. Maybin/Miller were up there and it's a close package considering Trahen and Cruz were pretty decently thought of as at least "average" contributers. Maybe the LA package would have been better, but it's nowhere near a third. Just a bit harsh.

[Beef]

Loney is definitely not literally Gaby Sanchez

[Swifty]

No, he literally is. Have you ever seen the two in the same place at the same time? I haven't.

[Todd]

No, he literally is. Have you ever seen the two in the same place at the same time? I haven't.

I laughed.

[Fish and Chips]

If the marlins are going to trade JJ, might as well for go all out firesale

Trade JJ and Cantu to Texas for Smoak, Felix, McCarthy lower level pitching
Trade Uggla, Lindstrom, and morrison to the giants for MadBum,
Runzler

Then you got 4 of the top 10 prospect in baseball, and all of the prospects are ML-ready or are 1 year away

2011 Lineup
MAybin CF
Coghlan 2B
Hanley SS
Stanton RF
Smoak 1B
Dominguez 3B
Cousins Lf
Baker C

Rotation
Felix
Nolasco
MadBum
West
Miller/Volstad/McCarthy

[Omar]

I sincerely doubt that Hanley Ramirez, a player who signed just last year long term, will be happy with another firesale. Also, how are you going to build any kind of positive reputation with potential players in the future if you keep doing the firesale thing like clockwork? They didn't even win the World Series this time!

That's what the Front Office has to realize. The "baseball is a business" argument goes both ways. You can't attract future employees if you continue to have such terrible business practices. You can't even guarantee that you'll be able to hang on to players you draft when there is an incredibly large chance that they won't be here by the time year 5 in arbitration comes around.

Yeah, the stadium will change everything financially blah blah blah. They've got their stadium, it's time to show some good faith going into the place rather than 'everything is going to change when we move into our pretty stadium, we promise [wink wink].' Another firesale now could do even more damage than the first 2.5 did.

[nny]

Really?

Being fair, Maybin has always been higher regarded than Kemp (who I don't understand why is touted as a superstar with an .842 OPS, with heavy lefty splits. He's good, not great. He's great in FANTASY baseball but that's it), and Miller was at the same prospect level if not higher than Bill. Yea, so far it's worked out significantly with the LA players, but I can't fault them for going Maybin/Miller. And I don't think it's crazy to think Maybin can at least match Kemp down the road or turn out better, and Miller becoming productive even if he isn't dominant like Bills. And Loney is whatever. He's Gaby Sanchez. Literally. Who cares about him.

Just saying, that a third of that is wrong. Maybin/Miller were up there and it's a close package considering Trahen and Cruz were pretty decently thought of as at least "average" contributers. Maybe the LA package would have been better, but it's nowhere near a third. Just a bit harsh.

third is likely wrong and all but that's still was a better package even ignoring hindsight. The main difference is we would have been trading for players who were already producing at the major league level. There is a HUGE difference in value to a player producing at MLB and a player striking out every third AB in A+ ball regardless of just how much more talent the A+ ball player might have down the road. Big difference in value to a player posting a low-3 ERA and a player posting a high-5 ERA.

And Loney is > Gaby. Loney is a career 800 OPS bat now entering his prime and you're hoping can get some more power. At this point we're hoping Gaby can be an upper 700 OPS bat. Loney basically hit his bottom and he's still better than if Gaby translates. Loney is still a below average starter but what did we get out of 1b in '07? What did we get out of 3b in '08?

Plain and simple, ignoring the "if my aunt has a penis she would be my uncle" things, if we got the Dodger haul we're probably in the playoffs in '07 and '08. Those three players fill basically every hole we've had the past two years.

[m26555]

Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post spoke with Matt Sosnick, the agent for Josh Johnson, who believes Johnson will be on a new club before the start of the '11 season.

"My hope is that he signs a long-term deal and stays in Florida,' Sosnick said. "But I would say it's much more likely that we'll do a one-year deal this year and he's playing for somebody else in 2011.'

Sosnick also made it clear that Johnson is seeking a deal that "far exceeds" the deal that Zack Greinke'sfour-year, $38MM contract signed last winter. Sosnick notes that Johnson's '09 season was better than the season Greinke had prior to signing his contract.

Earlier this month we learned that Johnson would accept a four-year, $42MM extension, but the Marlins are only offering three years and $23MM. Marlins GM Michael Hill was emphatic that Johnson would not be traded this off-season.

MLBTR

Hopefully, this is just Sosnick trying to put some pressure on the FO to get a deal done.

[Maybin]

Peter Gammons' response to that:

"memo to Josh Johnson:get an agent who won't embarress you for his pitiable self-promotion"

Via twitter

I feel the same way

[lou]

What does far exceeds mean? I don't think 10% (let's say $4 million to make it easy) means far exceeds. 4/$42 is a bit reasonable, even if a fairer number is $39-40. Far exceeds means like 4/$48. And if that's what Sosnick wants, really. I don't fault the Marlins at all for not paying that right now.

[CrimsonCane]

On the LeBatard Show yesterday, he mentioned that he spoke to someone in the Marlins' front office on Sunday (LeBatard had a bit part in Samson's play which ran on Sunday and lots of Marlins people were there). LeBatard spoke to this person and said, "Whatever you do, don't lose Josh Johnson." That person told him, "There's no way we are letting him go somewhere else."

All speculation and hearsay, but it's about as valid as a beat writer's twitter post.

[lou]

Peter Gammons' response to that:

"memo to Josh Johnson:get an agent who won't embarress you for his pitiable self-promotion"

Via twitter

I feel the same way

Pretty awesome.

I really can't remember any agent except Boras kicking and screaming for some other deals being this vocal in the media.

What's this going to do to Nolasco now? And other Sosnick rep'd guys in the future? Talk about burning bridges.