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We all know Miller signed a MLB contract with the Tigers right out of the draft. That contract expired at the end of the 2009 season. Miller did not qualify for arbitration, or hit the Super 2 deadline, so pursuant to to the MLB-CBA the Marlins can "renew" his contract for 80% of his 2009 value, which is a shade under $2 million dollars. So as long as Andrew Miller is on the MLB roster, he is making the pro-rate of $2 million per every week. Very simple.
But is that guaranteed?
I started thinking about how in essence, this is a "renewal." Because we renew all our club controlled players, like Coghlan, West, Maybin, Baker, etc. And what happens when we renew them and send them down to the minor leagues? That player no longer receives their club controlled salary, but is moved to a $65,000 pay scale (what a member of the 40 man roster not in the majors makes).
So it follows, Andrew Miller has an option. Are the Marlins on the hook for $2 million if he starts the year in AAA?
Initially I was under the impression yes. That somewhere in the CBA there is a catch-all phrase guaranteeing the contract for the few players around that fall into this no man's land loophole of being a premier draft pick (or international signee), and then failing to get to the Super 2 threshold by the end of the deal. However, this is NOT the case. Looking at the CBA, which I can't believe I read for about 2 hours over this, there is no specific language detailing this type of player. I enlisted Cot's to help, and they agreed that there is nothing that guarantees this contract, and the Marlins are free to offer Miller a guaranteed or non-guaranteed contract. It's up to the club.
Interestingly enough however, the had a great comp.
Delmon Young of
1 year/$1.152M (2009)
re-signed by Minnesota 2/12/09
split contract paying $0.864M in minors
5 years/$5.8M (2004-08)
signed Major League contract with Tampa Bay 9/8/03
$3.7M signing bonus ($25,000 paid 11/03, $0.225M 1/04, $1.5M each 1/05 and 1/06, $0.45M 7/06)
04:$0.125M, 05:$0.175M, 06:$0.5M, 07:$0.6M, 08:$0.7M
This happened to Delmon last year, and as you can see, the Twins also gave Delmon the 80% contract renewal (his signing bonus gets pro-rated over all the years of his initial 5 year contract for purposes of the 80% renewal). However, the Twins also "graciously" gave him a split contract so in the event he were sent to the minors, he'd be making a very nice $864k tender instead of $65k.
Cot's suspects, this is what the Marlins will do with Miller (and the Mets with Pelfrey, Royals Hochevar). There aren't a lot of comps in this area for obvious reasons, but the general idea is you are creating to much bad will with your player if you don't give him something.
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So this follows, it's going to be interesting to see how the Marlins handle Miller in a few ways.
1 - Do they offer a split contract
2 - If yes, how much is the difference between the MLB/MILB rates. Is it going to be $2 million / $1 million split, or higher and the MILB tender worth more?
3 - Regardless if there is no split minor league portion or if there is one (which is the guess), there is clearly "cost savings" to be had here for the Marlins. If Miller is no better than West or RVH for the # 5 SP slot, you can put Miller in AAA for 3 months and potentially save $500k-$1 million. Do they do that to save the money, or do they just keep him in the bigs? Is the cheapness of the prior few years ending?
But is that guaranteed?
I started thinking about how in essence, this is a "renewal." Because we renew all our club controlled players, like Coghlan, West, Maybin, Baker, etc. And what happens when we renew them and send them down to the minor leagues? That player no longer receives their club controlled salary, but is moved to a $65,000 pay scale (what a member of the 40 man roster not in the majors makes).
So it follows, Andrew Miller has an option. Are the Marlins on the hook for $2 million if he starts the year in AAA?
Initially I was under the impression yes. That somewhere in the CBA there is a catch-all phrase guaranteeing the contract for the few players around that fall into this no man's land loophole of being a premier draft pick (or international signee), and then failing to get to the Super 2 threshold by the end of the deal. However, this is NOT the case. Looking at the CBA, which I can't believe I read for about 2 hours over this, there is no specific language detailing this type of player. I enlisted Cot's to help, and they agreed that there is nothing that guarantees this contract, and the Marlins are free to offer Miller a guaranteed or non-guaranteed contract. It's up to the club.
Interestingly enough however, the had a great comp.
Delmon Young of
1 year/$1.152M (2009)
re-signed by Minnesota 2/12/09
split contract paying $0.864M in minors
5 years/$5.8M (2004-08)
signed Major League contract with Tampa Bay 9/8/03
$3.7M signing bonus ($25,000 paid 11/03, $0.225M 1/04, $1.5M each 1/05 and 1/06, $0.45M 7/06)
04:$0.125M, 05:$0.175M, 06:$0.5M, 07:$0.6M, 08:$0.7M
This happened to Delmon last year, and as you can see, the Twins also gave Delmon the 80% contract renewal (his signing bonus gets pro-rated over all the years of his initial 5 year contract for purposes of the 80% renewal). However, the Twins also "graciously" gave him a split contract so in the event he were sent to the minors, he'd be making a very nice $864k tender instead of $65k.
Cot's suspects, this is what the Marlins will do with Miller (and the Mets with Pelfrey, Royals Hochevar). There aren't a lot of comps in this area for obvious reasons, but the general idea is you are creating to much bad will with your player if you don't give him something.
------
So this follows, it's going to be interesting to see how the Marlins handle Miller in a few ways.
1 - Do they offer a split contract
2 - If yes, how much is the difference between the MLB/MILB rates. Is it going to be $2 million / $1 million split, or higher and the MILB tender worth more?
3 - Regardless if there is no split minor league portion or if there is one (which is the guess), there is clearly "cost savings" to be had here for the Marlins. If Miller is no better than West or RVH for the # 5 SP slot, you can put Miller in AAA for 3 months and potentially save $500k-$1 million. Do they do that to save the money, or do they just keep him in the bigs? Is the cheapness of the prior few years ending?
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