Junior to the White Sox??? Phils/Marlins

[Backtobanks]

I guarantee that the Yanks would claim him if no one claimed him before them. I can't believe he would get all the way to the White Sox. Also, I can't believe that the Reds would let him go for nothing (just salary) when they could certainly work a deal in the off season and receive some players in return.

[nilodnayr]

the reds are not far from contending.

 

:shock:

 

Maybe if they move to the NL West. I guess 20 games out of the division isnt that far, especially if they give up their second best hitter. Watchout cardinals!

[Diffusion]

Well from what I have heard, When someone goes on waivers he must be offered to their division first meaning from worst to first in the NL and THEN offered from worst to first in the AL....That means all teams would have to pass on him for the whitesox get a shot....surely someone like the yankees or astros would claim him b4 the sox get the shot.

 

That's true. But if the Yankees or Astros claim him, they'll be told by the Reds they can have him, and the claimant will then have to pay a) the cost of the waiver claim and b) every single cent left on Griffey's contract. That's a situation I bet that the Reds could easily live with even if they're not getting anything at all in return. The salary relief itself is enormous, Griffey's earning big chunks of money through something like 2025.

If someone were to claim Griffey and the Reds let it stand, I'm pretty sure all the claiming team would owe Jr. would be $41.5 million plus the minimal waiver fee to the Reds. Yes, Griffey has deferred payments coming to him until 2024, but the vast majority of that should still be paid by the Reds. His contract was structured in such a way that he's earning $12.5M each season of the contract, with $6.5M per year deferred over the 2009-2024 period. (With the exception of 2000, which only had $5.5M in deferred payments.) In other words, while Junior has only received $6 million of his 2002 salary, he's already "earned" all $12.5 million of it with the services he provided the Reds that year.

 

In short, I would think the deferred salary he earned while playing with the Reds should still be paid by the Reds, regardless of where he finishes the contract. So while technically Griffey will recieve $79.5 million in salary payments after this season (not counting any interest on the deferred money) at least $38 million of that will be paid by the Cincinnati becuase it was earned while Junior was in their employ.

 

That is, I believe, all true. I didn't mean to imply otherwise, though I can see why what I wrote could be taken to mean that I did. By "every cent left on Griffey's contract", I didn't mean to include the deferred money that's deferred from time he's already spent in Cincinnati. All the same, I think that $41.5m (thanks for checking the real figure) is still a pretty enormous amount of money to be saving, even if it's spread out, especially when you're talking about a player that's simply nowhere near as good as he once was, stands very little chance of getting back to where he once was, and gets injured all the time...

 

At $41.5 over a few years claiming Griffey starts making a lot more sense for teams such as the Yankees. They have the finances to pay the contract but not much in the way of tradeable commodities. And while I'm sure the Reds wouldn't mind freeing up $40 million plus over the next few years, I'm not sure they're so keen on giving up a fairly productive player without getting any talent in reutrn. Given the choice between freeing up $40 million and getting nothing in return or freeing up $25-$30 million and getting a few good propsects, I'd wager O'Brien would pick the latter.

 

Interesting view. Are a couple of prospects worth $10-15m? I'm not sure about that myself. Still, worth debating I think...