One natural reaction to the Orioles re-signing Chris Davis is that this would close the door on them adding any other big free agent this offseason. That's got to be it, right? This is the Orioles we're talking about. Yoenis Cespedes was yesterday's news, and now the door must be closed. But maybe not necessarily, reports The Baltimore Sun's Eduardo Encina.
According to Encina, the O's would still give consideration to signing Cespedes, though at this point that would only be on "a deal of two years or less." Well, it's nice to consider something, isn't it? But it doesn't do the Orioles a whole lot of good if Cespedes is not going to consider them on a deal of two years or less. As to that, well, nobody knows just yet.
Anything is possible in this crazy world where the Orioles have now signed a player to a $161 million contract. Just because we've never seen something happen before doesn't mean it will never happen.
If it does end up that Cespedes has to settle for a shorter-term contract, maybe the Orioles would be an interesting option for him. Friday night's report that Cespedes was choosing between five years from the Orioles and one year from the Mets is obviously no longer operative.
What if it became a year from the Orioles or a year from the Mets? Cespedes was there in New York for three months. It's not like we're talking about having to overcome years of sentimental attachment from a guy whose name is synonymous with a different franchise.
So far, we've got only one rumor to go on that puts it out there as a possibility, but it's not totally farfetched, especially depending on the contours of the deferred money that's expected to exist in the Davis contract.
Just for the sake of indulging in a wild fantasy, let's say that it turns out that Davis has a large amount deferred early in the contract, like $10 million deferred out of year 1. I said it was a wild fantasy, okay. What if the Orioles took that $10 million and then kicked in another $10 million to try to lure Cespedes here for a year? It doesn't help the starting rotation any, but that would sure put a spark into the offense. Ticket prices would probably go up, but they should make that money back if the Orioles have a successful year. Wouldn't that be a fun team to watch?
On the other hand, back in reality...
Told deal with Chris Davis is for less money than Cespedes was seeking #orioles
— Roch Kubatko (@masnRoch) January 16, 2016
If Cespedes was seeking more than Davis got, well, you can probably forget about all of these dreams of a one or two year deal. It's hard to say what to make of this report. Another one from ESPN's Jerry Crasnick Friday night is that Cespedes had been seeking six years and $22 million per year. Multiply that out to $132 million. That is quite obviously not a number greater than $161 million.
Someone is wrong there, but for the purposes of whether or not Cespedes would take a one year deal with the O's, it doesn't really matter who is right about what Cespedes is seeking on a long-term contract. The question is: Will Cespedes get the money he's looking for? And the next question is: If he doesn't get that big money, where might he turn next? Baltimore is only one possible answer if it even gets to that point.
A lot of things would now have to break the O's way for this to happen. Probably nothing else will happen.