Gattis avoids arbitration with settlement
KISSIMMEE, Fla. — The Astros settled their only remaining arbitration case at the last minute Tuesday, wrapping up a long but fruitful process with their six arbitration-eligible players.
Designated hitter Evan Gattis, who might miss opening day after undergoing sports hernia surgery last week, agreed to a one-year deal at $3.3 million that includes a $ 5.2 million team option for 2017 or a $ 100,000 buyout, people f amiliar with the deal told the Chronicle.
The Astros receive upside with the 2017 option if Gattis repeats or improves in 2016. They also secure his 2016 salary below the filing midpoint. Gattis filed for $3.8 million, the Astros for $3.3 million.
A hearing in front of an arbitration panel was set for Tuesday afternoon in Arizona, but and the parties settled before lunchtime.
For Gattis, who was arbitration-eligible for the first time, the $3.4 million guarantee (including the buyout) marks the first seven-figure salary of his career, giving him the multimillion-dollar payday many players never get to: the first. And he could make $ 8.5 million by the end of 2017.
With 15 players (including Gattis) totaling roughly $ 89 million in salary, the Astros’ opening-day payroll figures to be around $94 million — assuming the other 10 spots are taken by players making the league minimum of a little above $ 500,000.
Nine of those expected league-minimum players can be accounted for. Collin McHugh, Ken Giles, Lance McCullers Jr., Carlos Correa, Max Stassi, Mike Fiers, Jake Marisnick, Preston Tucker and Will Harris all could be on the opening-day roster (although it remains to be seen whether the Astros carry both Tucker and Marisnick, and there’s competition for Stassi at backup catcher).
Hinch, Gase compare notes
Dolphins and alligators dominated A. J. Hinch’s first full day in Florida.
The Astros manager took a trip south from the Orlando area and went golfing Monday with new Dolphins coach Adam Gase. On the course, the pair encountered four or five gators, Hinch said.
Tom Garfinkel, the president of the Dolphins, is a mutual friend of the two field generals. Garfinkel worked as an executive for the Diamondbacks and Padres when Hinch worked for both teams’ front offices.
“It was a great day,” Hinch said. “We actually have some mutual friends from our past together. We actually had a chance to spend the day talking about sort of being a young head coach, young manager in these massive sports.
“It’s ironic to see how parallel our universe is run, even though his sport is built on a lot of emotion and a lot of intensity and mine is more built on a marathon of our season. It was fun to bounce ideas off each other for a day.”
The golf course wasn’t too f ar from the construction site of the Astros’ new spring complex in West Palm Beach.
“We’ll have to check the area out for gators,” Hinch joked. “I took some great pictures and stayed as f ar away (as possible).”
Speaking of the new Astros’ spring complex, it appeared that executives from the Nationals and Astros were shopping for grass for their new shared home on Tuesday. A person on Twitter who identified himself as a salesperson for Pike Creek Turf, a Georgia-based company, posted a picture of people he said were team execs looking at grass types.
More bonding on the agenda
Astros manager A. J. Hinch and the team enjoyed morning getting-to-know you sessions in 2015, Hinch’s first season at the helm, and those are planned again this spring.
One player would have to research something about another player and present it to everyone in the clubhouse. Other days, there would be a competition like a basketball tournament.
“I thought camp went really well with balancing the chemistry building in the clubhouse and the work on the field,” Hinch said. “So we’ll have our fun in the mornings. The fun part about spring training is there’s always a group of first-timers that come over from the minor league camp — either being added to the 40man roster or first year in camp or newly signed guys — and to give ’em a little bit of taste of the fun environment that we create.
“We’ll obviously go out on the field and get a ton of work in. Some of the same activities of a few competitions behind the scenes. A few secrets in guys’ pasts that our teammates need to know about. Got a few things up my sleeve.”
The team briefly met every morning at 9 a.m. and likely will do so again this year.
Astros alumni (and team employees) like Roger Clemens, Nolan Ryan, Craig Biggio and Enos Cabell are expected to make the usual visits to Kissimmee this year. But Lance Berkman, because of his coaching job at Second Baptist, won’t be able to.
Jeff Bagwell visited last year, but it is not known if he will this year.