There’s some sense in signing him this offseason, but, then again, he might not be interested in signing. There’s always an incentive for a player to go into arbitration or work out a long term contract when they’ve had a solid, healthy year. Seems like it would behoove Adam Jones to wait until the All-Star break or later, after displaying his talents and not being injured, to make him more expensive.

Me? I’m all for signing him right now, though a deal might have to be a bit less than what Markakis got due to service time/results.

But like you and Orpheus, I think that may make Jones a bit less prone to WANT to do this now — he might see himself in a better negotiating position if he waits. Then again, a ballplayer under team control can’t always get guaranteed money, so he does have that incentive. If I was Andy I’d at least be coming to the table, but it may or may not get done in a way that makes both sides happy this winter.

It works about better for Jones and the O’s. Jones because he might be able to negotiate more money, the O’s because they have another season to evaluate him. I love Adam and I believe he’s going to be great but the truth his that in his two years as an Oriole he’s put up one league average season and one below average season (offensively). Not really the sort of thing you’d lock up a player long term for. He’s been much less successful over his first two years than Nicky was, they still waited three years to sign him long term.

Injury questions and he’s only had a half season of great production.

I sure hope they take care of more than ONE year of free agency. I don’t see much reason to do it this year other than to generate good will which I’m all for. But it seems like they could just as easily see how this season plays out and then if he stays healthy (please!), they could lock him up longer term before arbitration. If he has a good year and stays healthy I’d be all for signing him to the same kind of deal as Nicky (6 years or whatever). Take out 2-3 of his FA years.

“5 years, $40 million, which takes care of his first year of free agency.”

So you’re buying ONE YEAR of free agency at $10 million? That’s the diff between his expected salaries and this deal. What’s the point in that?

Nicky’s deal bought his first THREE years of free agency. I wouldn’t do a deal for less than his first 3 years of free agency. Buying one year of FA that won’t occur for another 4 years makes no sense right now.

I think signing him this winter makes a lot of sense.

McPhail is doing his best Dave Chapelle imitation in his head in that pic…

“Gotcha bitch!”

I was looking back at the comments here and realized I hadn’t responded at all. Whoops.

So, the consensus seems to be that if we lock him up this offseason, it needs to be for more like 6-7 years, and perhaps a little more of a club-friendly deal at that. However, it’s somewhat unlikely that Jones is going to want to come to the table yet, and it’s possible that the club might want to wait another year to make sure he can get through a full year and that he continues to improve.

That all seems to make good sense. I tend to assume too much that somebody like Jones is going to want to stick with the O’s for a while. But, yeah, if they aren’t actually contending by the time he becomes a free agent, I would find it hard to blame him for looking elsewhere.

The one thing I still worry about is that the club could save a lot of money if it manages to lock him up this year instead next, when for all we know he’ll hit .280+ with 25 homers and suddenly look a lot more expensive. On the whole, though, it probably is better to wait another year so he can be evaluated more thoroughly, even if he costs the club more money in the process. Thanks for the feedback, all.