Ryan Howard Seeks $18 Million in Arbitration

by Charlie Wilmoth on Jan 20, 2009 6:09 PM EST

Holy wow. The Phillies have offered $14 million, and Howard wants $18 million.

	BORN	2008 STATS	2008 VORP	DEFENSE	STAYS HEALTHY?
Player A	November 1979	.251/.339/.543	36.4	Bad	Yes
Player B	November 1979	.236/.386/.513	36.6	Really bad	Yes

Which one's better? Player A has posted higher batting averages in the past, so I'd rather have him going forward, but these players were pretty similar in lots of ways in 2008.

Player A is Howard, who's now assured of making at least $14 million this year. Player B is Adam Dunn, who's still looking for a team. This isn't a good year to be a free agent, and you can look at Howard's arbitration figures and see why the Diamondbacks didn't offer Dunn arbitration.

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Are you hinting we should sign Dunn on the cheap?

Why not throw a short term offer out to Dunn? 2 years and $20 million or something like that. Pat Burrell got a few million less than that. We’ve still got 6 to 10 million to play with in our $54 million budget after the arbitration eligible guys sign. He won’t cost us a draft pick and who’s Dunn going to block? Steve Pearce? Brandon Moss? They won’t hit 40 homers combined.

by Chad Bahamas on Jan 20, 2009 9:02 PM EST reply actions

I wasn’t, but the more I think about it, the more I warm to it. If he’s going to be that cheap and it’s only, say, two years, then the only potential problem I see is if McCutchen and Tabata both start banging on the door. In that case, though, one would think that McLouth or Dunn would be traded.

I wouldn’t be interested in signing Dunn to, say, a four-year deal, but two years I definitely wouldn’t mind.

by Charlie Wilmoth on Jan 20, 2009 9:13 PM EST up reply actions

if only

i think it would be a great move for us, however the post arbitration payroll will probably end up somewhere in the high $40 to low $50 millions (i’m mostly guessing at this, but i seem to remember reading it from DK recently) with the stated payroll around $54 million this year. does nutting back up his words that we need to be better this year by spending over that? i doubt it.

by johnnycuff on Jan 21, 2009 11:18 AM EST up reply actions

Dunn could take over for Laroche at first next year and not block Tabata/McCutchen in 2010. Maybe if Alvarez gets his fat self in gear he will be at 1B in 2010, but that’s no given. I think this is the perfect market for the Pirates to be a little opportunistic. I agree 4 years would be too much. 2 is perfect.

by Chad Bahamas on Jan 20, 2009 9:17 PM EST reply actions

Yeah, you’re right. At this point, it looks reasonably realistic, too. Pat wrote about this a couple days ago.

by Charlie Wilmoth on Jan 20, 2009 9:28 PM EST up reply actions

You’re getting religion, Charlie.

by rogero on Jan 20, 2009 9:38 PM EST up reply actions

Thanks for standing by me.

Still no long contracts, though. I’m not ready for that.

by Charlie Wilmoth on Jan 20, 2009 9:42 PM EST up reply actions

This is germane:

According to the WaPo, Dunn wants $56M over four years, and doesn’t want to play first base or DH. Link.

Both of those make him significantly less attractive to me, but the 1B thing is more of a deal-breaker than the money. He’s a big glove minus in the OF, and I think he could recoup a lot of that value at 1B, since he’s big and doesn’t have bad hands. He’d make a nice bridge at 1B, too, if we unloaded LaRoche at the deadline this year. If he insists on being a LF or RF, that all goes out the window.

by Vlad on Jan 21, 2009 3:57 PM EST up reply actions

Dunn for one

2/20 beats one year at half that or less, but I’d guess Dunn signs for one year wherever he goes, and I’d love it to be Pgh. I think there will be a lot of 1-year deals, just as in 2003.

by azibuck on Jan 21, 2009 10:35 AM EST reply actions