http://boston.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/12/28/how-jose-bautista-could-fit-on-the-red-sox/ Bringing BP-quality analysis to Boston Mon, 20 Aug 2018 04:19:09 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1 http://boston.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/12/28/how-jose-bautista-could-fit-on-the-red-sox/#comment-10554 Sat, 31 Dec 2016 20:12:56 +0000 http://boston.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=12954#comment-10554 That’d be ideal, yes, but it’s worth mentioning that Beltre was 31 when he signed his pillow contract and Bautista is about to be 36. He’s probably not as worried about a long-term payday as he is collecting as much as possible right now.

]]> http://boston.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/12/28/how-jose-bautista-could-fit-on-the-red-sox/#comment-10530 Fri, 30 Dec 2016 20:51:06 +0000 http://boston.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=12954#comment-10530 There’s already a great model for how to do this, and it’s the Adrian Beltre “pillow” contract with an extra to make it worth giving up the draft pick. If Bautista gets down to the 10(ish) million range, offer him 1 year at 8M plus a player option at 2M and team option at 15M. That would only count as 5M against the luxury tax because player options are considered guaranteed money/years under the CBA (assuming that didn’t change with the new CBA). The Sox get 2 things as an upside that can make it worth the draft pick – staying comfortably under the tax threshold and if Bautista stays healthy and returns to being anything like an elite bat, they get an extra year at a good price that isn’t too bad for Bautista at the age he would otherwise be going out on the market next year.

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