Springer, Houston OK deal for 2 years, $24M
MVP of World Series avoids arbitration, gets hefty raise.
World Series MVP George Springer and the Houston Astros avoided salary arbitration by agreeing Monday to a $24 million, two-year contract.
Springer gets $12 million annually under the deal and will be eligible for arbitration again after the 2019 season. The hearing had been scheduled for today.
He asked for a raise from $4,075,000 to $10.5 million and was offered $8.5 million. His case was bolstered when Mookie Betts defeated Boston in the first hearing last week and was awarded $10.5 million rather than the team’s $7.5 million offer.
Springer tied the World Series record with five home runs, homering in each of the final four games, as Houston won its first title. Springer batted .379 (11 for 29) with five walks in the seven games against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He set career bests during the season with a .283 average, 34 home runs and 85 RBIs.
Houston lost to closer Ken Giles in a case decided Saturday and remains scheduled for a hearing with pitcher Collin McHugh.
Players are 5-2 in cases decided thus far and 17 remain scheduled for hearings through Feb. 16. Twenty-four would be the most hearings since 1990.
Rangers: Bartolo Colon and Darwin Barney agreed to minor league contracts, and both will attend big league spring training.
Colon, 44 would get a $1.75 million, one-year contract if added to the 40-man roster under the terms of the deal agreed to Sunday and could make an additional $1.3 million in performance bonuses based on innings.
He was 7-14 with a 6.48 ERA in 28 starts for Atlanta and Minnesota last season. He was released by the Braves in July, then signed with the Twins and went 5-6 with a 5.18 ERA in 15 starts for them.
Colon has 240 victories in 20 seasons with 10 teams, including the Montreal Expos. The portly righthander has posted 21 wins against Texas, the most by any pitcher.
A four-time All-Star, Colon won the 2005 AL Cy Young Award with the Angels.
Barney, 32, won a Gold Glove with the Chicago Cubs in 2012, when he had just two errors in 155 games at second base. The Los Angeles Dodgers traded him to Toronto on Sept. 13, 2015, and he hit .232 with six home runs and 25 RBIs in 129 games for the Blue Jays last season.
Agent questions cost-cutting: Agent Scott Boras said the number of major league teams rebuilding with younger, lower-cost rosters has become a cancer to the sport, attributing behavior to the strengthened luxury tax combining with restraints on draft-pick salaries.
Boras attributes baseball’s attendance drop to an increase in non-competitive teams, predicts fans from perennial losers will increasingly stay away from ballparks until ticket prices are cut and said regional sports networks will negotiate lower rights fees with teams going into rebuild cycles.
J.D. Martinez, Mike Moustakas, Eric Hosmer and Jake Arrieta, all Boras clients, remain unsigned 10 days before spring training in a historically slow market. He said the luxury tax, envisioned by Commissioner Bud Selig to increase competitive balance, is having the opposite effect. He claims incentives are needed to winning, such as increasing draft-pick money based on victories.
“They decided we’re going to have the 12 teams-a-tanking, if you will, and therefore you’re got a noncompetitive cancer,” Boras said Monday.
Competitors watched a pair of successful rebuilds in the past two seasons. The Chicago Cubs won the 2016 World Series four years after losing 101 games and Houston took last year’s title four years after losing 111.
Sunday’s Games Monday’s Games
Predators 5, (at) Islanders 4 (OT): Ryan Johansen scored the tying goal in the final minute of regulation, and Roman Josi scored the winner 3:42 into overtime for Nashville. Kevin Fiala had two goals for the Predators, who rallied from a 4-2 deficit and improved to 9-1-2 in their past 12 games. John Tavares, Ryan Pulock, Casey Cizikas and Nick Leddy scored for New York, which lost for the third time in four games since the All-Star break. Islanders goalie Jaroslav Halak made 46 saves.
Ducks at Maple Leafs: Late
Rangers at Stars: Late
Lightning at Oilers: Late
NHL notes
Flyers: No. 1 goaltender Brian Elliott is expected to return from an undisclosed injury tonight at Carolina. The Flyers have lost all four games that he has been sidelined, allowing 4.5 goals per game. Today is the first of four meetings between two teams fighting for the last playoff spot in the East.
Sabres: Coach Phil Housley, part of a new regime this season with general manager Jason Botterill, acknowledged he might have underestimated how daunting a task he faced in addressing leadership concerns and changing the attitude of a team about to extend its club-record playoff drought to seven seasons. “When you only have 14 wins, there’s a lot of areas that need to be addressed. One of those is culture, and we’ve got to continue to find a way to change it,”Housley said of the Sabres, who have the NHL’s second-worst record.