Do You Believe the Jays will Re-Sign Melky Cabrera?
| Yes, because the Jays will be the highest bidder |  6 (5.26%) |
| Yes, because Melky wants to play here | 23 (20.18%) |
| No, the Jays won't come close to his best offer | 64 (56.14%) |
| No, the Jays want to spend their available cash elsewhere | 10 (8.77%) |
| I don't know | 11 (9.65%) |
114 votes | 6 featured comments
Unanimous, so far. Could this be the first poll ever on which we all agree?
I would like to see the Jays trade Lind and bring back Melky. All of our best hitters need time in the DH spot. Lind occupying that spot I think prohibits Melky resigning.
That said, I voted that he'd come back at a market discount.
That said, I voted that he'd come back at a market discount.
One note on that Lind comment, I think using the right handed side of the DH platoon to rest your regular players with Lind as the lefty handed side would be the way to go. The Jose's & Melky could take turns DHing against leftys and it would allow the Jays to not worry about filling two roster spots with DH's.
That being said, I voted C) reluctantly. I really hope they're able to sign him, 3 years, 45 million would be ideal, but I could see him getting that BJ Upton contract from a couple years ago (5/75) and I don't see the Jays touching that. Maybe Melky is serious about really wanting to come back and they can meet in the middle, who knows.
That being said, I voted C) reluctantly. I really hope they're able to sign him, 3 years, 45 million would be ideal, but I could see him getting that BJ Upton contract from a couple years ago (5/75) and I don't see the Jays touching that. Maybe Melky is serious about really wanting to come back and they can meet in the middle, who knows.
It depends on a lot of factors. I suspect he'll resign here if it is close as he knows what a mess he'll hit with PED talk elsewhere whenever he slumps. If no one out there gets stupid he is back, if someone goes 5/$75 or more then bye bye as I'd be shocked if the Jays went to 5 years guaranteed.
The more interesting question for me is "what is Melky Cabrera's 50% projection for the next 3 years?" He is a fine pure hitter with medium range pop. He is slow (and getting slower) and has an excellent arm for a left-fielder. He is 30 years old. I think that he's going lose a few points on the batting average as he beats out a couple of fewer infield hits per season, and a wee bit defensively (the word will go out about his arm being better especially since the removal of the tumour). I think that he'll be a 2 WAR player overall; that might be optimistic bearing in mind risk of injury. Do you want to pay $15 million per year for that? It depends on what the budget is.
His BBRef comparables are amusing- Zack Wheat, Paul Blair, Garry Maddox, Darin Erstad, Amos Otis, Carlos May (none of whom are really like him at all) and Mark Kotsay and Terry Puhl (who are somewhat like him). There are quite a few Gold Glove centerfielders there.
His BBRef comparables are amusing- Zack Wheat, Paul Blair, Garry Maddox, Darin Erstad, Amos Otis, Carlos May (none of whom are really like him at all) and Mark Kotsay and Terry Puhl (who are somewhat like him). There are quite a few Gold Glove centerfielders there.
None of us knows the hearts of any of these players. But superficially, from this amateur psychiatrist's armchair, it seems that Melky really enjoys his Latin teammates. And his English language skills being as weak as they are, those teammates seem to provide him a level of comfort and security.
Now, whether that teammate love is enough to trump the bigger dollar offers likely to come from elsewhere, I guess we'll see. It seems the Jays could get away with a bit of a discount, but we all know that in the end, money usually wins. And maybe there are Latinos on other teams poised and ready to be Melky's new best friends.