Detroit offers Damon two years, $14 million (UPDATED)
Scott Boras reaffirms he is king among agents.
You can curse Scott Boras all you want and blame him (and his ilk) for baseball salaries spiraling out of control. But we just found out again why he’s the best agent in baseball.
According to FoxSports.com, Boras has coaxed a two-year, $14 million offer out of the Detroit Tigers for free agent outfielder Johnny Damon. If the report is accurate, you can forget about the Braves landing Damon for left field and, more important, the leadoff spot in their batting order.
Johnny Damon hit .282 and a career-high 24 homers in 2009.
The Braves’ offer reportedly was for one year for somewhere between $4 million and $5 million, including deferred payments, according to our David O’Brien.
After not extending an offer the entire offseason, general manager Frank Wren clearly was eager for Damon to sign, even having Chipper Jones make a recruiting phone call to the player in hopes of luring him to Atlanta.
But it’s doubtful the Braves would add a second year to their offer, especially with Damon being 36 years old. Part of the Braves’ pitch was that their spring training home in Orlando is near Damon’s offseason home, but the Tigers also train in nearby Lakeland.
FoxSports reported that Tigers owner Mike Ilitch authorized the two-year, $14 million offer, doubling Detroit’s previous offer of one year for $7 million. Damon has spent his entire career in the American League (Kansas City, Oakland, Boston New York).
Bottom line: It was a nice effort, even if belated, by Wren to improve the lineup. But he can’t be faulted if the Braves don’t match Detroit’s offer.
UPDATE: There’s no comment yet from the Tigers on their reported offer to Damon. But here’s a link to an interesting story from a long-time pal of mine, John Lowe of the Detroit Free Press. It seems when Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski was asked four weeks ago if he was interested in Damon, the answer was no. Things apparently changed only after owner Mike Ilitch got involved. That would jibe with the Fox report that Boras, “seemingly has succeeded in reaching out to Ilitch, who previously signed several of the agent’s other high-profile clients, including catcher Ivan Rodriguez, right fielder Magglio Ordonez and pitcher Kenny Rogers.”
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221 comments Add your comment
Ozzie
February 12th, 2010
10:44 am
Jeff the reports you are quoting are fabricated and or here-say. Olney posted this AM that he heard someone was asked to leak a 2yr deal to get the Braves et al off the pot.
The 7mm numbers are bs and given that Damon is still unemployed I think many journalists are realizing they got snookered last night.
He may go to DET but that is far from certain. This was a dead cat bounce attempt by Boras to create a bidding war where there was none.
Marty
February 12th, 2010
10:49 am
I’ve seen several comments about the Braves being cheap; not spending money…isn’t their payroll over $90M??? They’re definitely in the top 3rd of payrolls. If the Braves are not winning it has nothing to do with not spending so let that go. Now, if you think they are spending their money in the wrong place and on the wrong players make that comment…and make it sensible.
JeanE
February 12th, 2010
11:02 am
Never would I be so happy to be jilted as now! We don’t need Damon, why would he want to come over to the NL at this stage of his career, it makes no sense. Go be Detroit’s DH. We will find our leadoff hitter somewhere within the lineup that we have now & I’m confident we’ll be great. Go Braves!!
dpelfrey
February 12th, 2010
11:07 am
How do you figure we got “Furcaled” again? Damon never responded to the Braves offer. I don’t see any similarity other than they were both free agents. Two completely different situations.
JeanE
February 12th, 2010
11:10 am
We don’t need another old player who’s on the tail end of their career: we have Glaus, let’s stick with importing 1 of those. Diaz can play left and his all pitching, when Heyward comes up, Diaz can float between the corner spots. McClouth will have a rebound year with his improved eyesight as will Mac. I feel really good about this team!
papadawg
February 12th, 2010
11:17 am
I’m amazed at fans who don’t understand a player starts downhill when he hits 30. Sorry folks it’s pro basball not church softball. We saw what teams do who sign over the hill players back before 1991.
BartBuzz
February 12th, 2010
11:29 am
Thank goodness Scott BoarAss kept Frank Wren from making another mistake. Let’s give the up-and-coming Braves a chance to play. Without a power hitter and unless Chipper rebounds big time, the Braves won’t make the playoffs this year anyway. But they have some young players who can take Atlanta back to the ’90s.
Clay
February 12th, 2010
11:33 am
Is Cox gonna “respect” Chipper by leaving him at the 3-spot in the lineup, even if he stinks like last year? Just trying to get my mind right early …
Tell It Like It Is
February 12th, 2010
11:36 am
The Braves are lucky that Detroit is dumber than they are. Why keep chasing over priced veterans with diminished skills just to maintain the status quo? Damon has less of an arm and defensive skills than Anderson and his bat is not as good either. Play Cabrera every day and bring Heyward and Freeman along slowly. Even Schafer is better than Damon so why even put him in the equation. I just do not understand Wren’s philosophy except for maintaining the pay roll at less than $100 million. Baseball is about business in Atlanta and not winning a World Series. Maybe that’s a good business model as you become accustomed to not expecting too much. IT IS WHAT IT IS.
Wolf
February 12th, 2010
11:43 am
Why waste money on Damon? He is a liability in the field, can’t throw worth a dime, can’t go back on balls. His “power” came from playing in Yankee Stadium. I’d prefer to see Matt Diaz in LF, or a platoon there. NO way Damon is worth that much money for two years.
Treeman
February 12th, 2010
11:57 am
Does the picture in this article of Boras resemble Roger Clemens?
the real Andy
February 12th, 2010
12:02 pm
BSIATL, if you’re still around, i’d be interested to see what Diaz’s second half numbers against righties were, once he started getting regular at bats against them. i don’t know that they’re any better, but i’m just curious. anybody got that info?
Me Two
February 12th, 2010
12:11 pm
It seems there’s always somebody willing to “overpay,” putting the more prudent GM twixt the proverbial rock and a hard place…
Orlando Man
February 12th, 2010
12:16 pm
Jeff,
Are you sure it’s 2 years and 14 million? All I see everywhere else is one year and 7 million.
Ozzie
February 12th, 2010
1:34 pm
Yesterdays Twitter induce Damon drama was fabricated. There doesn’t seem to be a more than a 1yr deal and the money being attributed especially by DET has been surgically extracted from various back sides.
DET may have made an offer (no one knows how much) and JS has confirmed Wren is in negiotiations for Damon but no word on money.
Beyond those two facts the rest is hot stove craziness.
It certainly is too soon to say the Tigers offered 2/14mm and put the Braves away.
My advice take what Fox and SI/Heyman say with less than a grain of salt. One does almost no fact checking and the other is practically on Boras’s payroll.
common sense
February 12th, 2010
1:36 pm
Damon has already made millions in the game.He is at the age were he just wants to play for a contender from year to year.He wanted to go back to the Yankees but they were’nt biting the price tag.So if he does go to the Tigers they will not have a realistic shot at making it to the postseason and it will be all bout the money,i was wrong.The Braves have a shot just on pitching alone.Its a reasonable offer and would’nt up it any.Braves offer an above 50% chance to making into postseason the Tigers offer less than 50%.Way your options Johnny, personally i would love the better chance to play in October
LostCause
February 12th, 2010
2:08 pm
To re-iterate several comments so far … Thank You Detroit!
Report: Detroit offers Damon two years, $14 million | Jeff Schultz | Drakz Free Online Service
February 12th, 2010
6:22 pm
[...] link: Report: Detroit offers Damon two years, $14 million | Jeff Schultz Share and [...]
oldgeek
February 12th, 2010
9:57 pm
Fools. There must be something in the water in Detroit that makes business people stupid.
Joe
February 13th, 2010
11:19 pm
Braves should sign Hank Blalock and put him in the outfield.
TS
February 14th, 2010
3:45 am
this first BS is ridicules. I bet these fools work at a fast food restaurant and think they r cool and funny running a joke thats was old a year ago.. and no it doesnt bother me, its just pathetic. BTW extra pickles please!! haha