Mike Rizzo doesn’t get much rest this time of year, and in a strategic decision non-tendered Craig Stammen as we thought may happen in our comments section 3 days ago based on Gonat’s thoughts that it might happen.
Wednesday was the Tender/Non-Tender deadline for arbitration eligible players. The Nats began the off-season with 9 arbitration eligible players and DFA’d reliever David Carpenter which reduced the Nats eligibles to just 8 players.
https://twitter.com/MLBRosterMoves/status/672256642457604096
Rizzo was able to negotiate contracts for Tyler Moore at $900,000 and José Lobaton for just over $1.38 million. Both deals were slightly below the MLBTR and TalkNats estimates.
Here are the remaining 5 arbitration eligible players who were all tendered contracts for which the Nats will try to work out contracts prior to the arbitration deadline.
- Stephen Strasburg
- Drew Storen
- Wilson Ramos
- Anthony Rendon
- Danny Espinosa
The Wednesday deadline had a few surprises like Petit of San Francisco and Cishek of St. Louis, Bourjos of St. Louis, Henderson Alvarez of Miami, and other names include Chris Carter, Minor, Feliz and Holland.
The Nats currently have 37 players on the 40 man roster after Stammen was removed which would allow Mike Rizzo to make 3 additional moves like signing a player like Steve Cishek for instance.
Good call by Gonat 3 days ago:
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Rizzo has $20 million tied up in Papelbon and Storen this year and $7 million in Yunel Escobar and $3 million in Craig Stammen. Stammen could be a non-tender.
Rizzo saying the 2016 Nats will be younger is quite the statement on direction but just parting ways with 5 players in their 30’s will make the team younger if he replaces them with younger players but then you have everyone else who is a year older.
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Good point on Stammen as he isn’t a guarantee.
What makes this so difficult about Craig Stammen is his popularity with the fanbase. He is personable and respectful. There is still a good chance he could be re-signed. Time will tell.
Updated 12/3/2015 8:00AM EST: We might be seeing the impact of the Nats new medical team made a suggestion to Rizzo on Stammen’s potential health and recovery from flexor tendon surgery. This also might explain the timing of the Stammen interview on MASN yesterday with Byron Kerr where Stammen talked about his health: http://www.masnsports.com/byron-kerr/2015/12/stammen-on-lost-2015-season-weve-got-to-be-a-better-team.html
Updated 12/3/2015 10:30AM EST: Our source says that indeed the decision to non-tender Stammen was based on a medical decision. There continues the possibility that Stammen could be re-signed by the Nats although Stammen’s agent wanted to weigh their options. Understandable given the circumstances.
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