As to sitting him to avoid the options taking effect, you might save some (ok, a lot) money in short term, but as Billfer points out, there really aren’t any MLB-ready prospects in the system that Maggs is blocking.

In addition, sitting a guy so that clauses don’t vest sends a bad message to potential free-agents around the league. As this post mentions, the Tigers knew they were going to have to throw a lot of money to get a guy like Maggs to come to a team like Detroit (at the time).

As a comparison, cutting an overwhelmingly under performing Sheffield who seemed clearly on the decline (both physically and statistically) was one thing. Even though the Tigers let him go, they still had to honor the contract. It showed a willingness to win, regardless of cost. Sitting Maggs in order to avoid vesting would send a different message entirely. He hasn’t shown the same proneness to injury or lack of production that Sheff did, and despite the slump is 3rd on the team in OBP. Sitting him would show a willingness to cut cost, regardless of desire to win (who’s a better option than Maggs right now?).

Asking him to voluntarily restructure is something else, but I think its tacky. Again, we knew we would overpay to get Maggs to come to Detroit, and there’s a good chance that his signing paved the way for a lot of subsequent quality players coming to town who otherwise would not have. I think these remaining years are a fair price to pay.

I just keep thinking of the scene in “Eight Men Out” where the owner won’t pay his pitcher the win bonus because the guy is one win short after being sat for an entire month for no reason. I don’t like talk of doing something similar to Maggs.

I thought that money isn’t a sure thing. This isn’t a buyout case right? like Sheff’s was and Pudge’s was

Why just not sit him, and say it was due to a lack of performance(which is the TRUTH) so the options don’t kick in.

NVM

“Detroit has a $15 million option for 2010 with a $3 million buyout and a $15 million option for 2011 with no buyout. In addition, Ordonez’s salary in each of the option years would become guaranteed if he has 135 starts or 540 plate appearances in the previous season or 270 starts or 1,080 plate appearances in the previous two seasons. If his 2010 salary becomes guaranteed under this provision, it would be at $18 million. The 2011 salary would be $15 million.”

Still they should want to get out of paying him for 2011.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/.....id=1985108

If he shows hes got his stroke back soon then fine, otherwise oh well. Its June and he is hitting like a AA player and you don’t throw 33mil at a 35 year old AA player do you?

But the Tigers already threw the money at him when they signed him to the contract. Now they’ll have to pay him. You can’t release him to avoid the money because the union would be all over the Tigers.

And I know that Cabrera, Granderson, and Verlander aren’t going anywhere – it’s not like they can work out a trade themselves . But there’s usually a difference in the performance of a player who feels secure and a player who’s looking over his shoulder, wondering if a slow stretch could result in them being cut or unloaded on to a non-contender (obviously, none of these are even close to being cut, but somewhere down the road, they might be more comfortable if their club doesn’t have a history of quickly getting rid of players who have done big things for the organization). Along that line, though, I wouldn’t want to be David Ortiz right now .

And while the power numbers haven’t been there, his average has picked up quite a bit in the past month or so. Hopefully that’s a sign of things to come!

Cabby isn’t going anywhere – he is signed for a long time. Same with Granderson. I don’t think it would affect Verlander’s decision much either, assuming that money was well spent towards his contract and the contract of lets say Joe Mauer/other young stud coming here in his prime (which may be or may not be a pipe dream).

Magglio needs to catch fire soon for his sake and ours, because right now it looks like there is a decision to be made.

To be fair, Magglio’s had a tough year personally so far. First, there was the whole debacle with his politics and the way the crowds were treating him at the WBC. I feel like that contributed to his slow start. And then there was the health issues with his wife, which would be stressful for anyone. I’m hopeful that things will calm down for him in the second half, and he’ll be to just relax and think about baseball, and then his numbers will improve.

That’s 1/3 of the 15mil, and about 2/7 of the 18mil.

Even if he plays a lot better there is good reason to believe that he wont produce like he has in recent years.

If he shows hes got his stroke back soon then fine, otherwise oh well. Its June and he is hitting like a AA player and you don’t throw 33mil at a 35 year old AA player do you?

I like seeing kids anyways. Lets keep the team young and injury free please!

I like Maggs a lot, and think he may simply be the victim of a very poorly timed slump, coming as it does in a big option year. I think his wife’s health issues may be weighing on him more than we know, and don’t think you can simply attribute his struggles to insta-aging. So yeah, I’d expect to see him bounce back, possibly significantly.

Also June is far and away his best month of the year, with an OPS of nearly 100 points higher than in nearly any other month.

Basically though you can look at this another way.

If you play him and let these two OPTIONS vest then you are basically resigning him at age 35 for 2 years and 33mil.

Also to say he isn’t blocking anyone might be somewhat true in the sense that we don’t have any stud outfielders. But the guys sitting behind him (Thomas, Raburn and Thames) aren’t exactly scrubs either as we saw today.

Just for a fun experiment lets combine Raburn and Thomas’ stats and see how they stack up against Ordonez – this is nothing to say of arm strength or speed.

Raburn and Thomas
157 AB 27 runs 7 doubles 1 triple 7hrs 29rbi 69total bases

Magglio
189AB 25 runs 8 doubles 0 triple 2 hrs 21 rbi 67 total bases

I’m just thinking what would happen if you were able to use that $$ and the Sheff $$$ that comes off the books towards several things

Possibly
Joe Mauer? Roy Halladay? another FA? Verlander’s contact, possibly Jackson’s contract etc.

And like you mentioned with Ramirez we have and/or are likely to have several decent hitting OF who could produce somewhat at maybe 1/50th the cost!!!!!!!!!!!

Still I’d wait to see if he starts mashing this month, if not then they might want to consider their options.