The Blue Jays picked up Oliver’s $3 million option for 2013 after he went 3-4 with a 2.06 ERA in 62 games this past season. The 2.06 ERA was the lowest in Oliver’s career, but his $3 million salary is far less than the three-year, $18 million contract that the Giants gave left-handed reliever Jeremy Affeldt this offseason.
Oliver, 42, pitched for the Rangers in 2010-11 and his family still lives in Tarrant County. He would prefer to pitch for the Rangers or retire if the Blue Jays aren’t willing to address his contract situation.
“The facts are the facts,” Oliver’s agent Jeff Frye said on Thursday. “It’s going to take a lot more money for Darren to play in Toronto than play in Texas. We’re waiting on the Blue Jays to pay him what he deserves. If not, we have asked them to trade him to Texas if the Rangers are interested.
“If not he’ll ride off into the sunset after a great 19-year career and enjoy his family.”
At this point there have been little in the way of trade discussions between the Rangers and the Blue Jays. But the Rangers are still looking to upgrade their bullpen after signing right-handed reliever Jason Frasor on Thursday.
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1. smileyy Posted: January 05, 2013 at 12:27 AM (#4339454)(Well, better ERAs, but with more looginess and less work each year).
Plus if the Mets had kept him after 2006 they probably don't collapse in 2007 and win the division.
This whole thing stinks of BS. Guy takes a front-loaded contract on the basis he will retire, cause no one else will give him a 2 year deal. Now that the market has changed he expects to be paid more for the back half of said contract? So if he got hurt last year or was terrible was he ready to give his salary back to the team? You sign a contract, you either play out the contract, or you retire and head off into the sunset. Oliver seems like a great guy, but I'd sooner see the Jays tell him to buzz off then ship him to a team they will likely compete against for the wild card for pennies on the dollar.
Or would he accept a trade to Houston? Is that close enough to his home?
I like Oliver--and think his career has been an incredible journey--but his agent is doing him a disservice here.
I doubt that very much. Players aren't dumb - they know whatever the agent is saying is whatever Oliver is telling him to say. If anything this will encourage future clients to go to this guy because they know he'll go to bat for them. These guys aren't off freelancing doing whatever they want with their MLB clients - they're doing what the client tells them to do.
As for the Jays, I don' think they should "cave" but I don't really think DO is expecting them to. They can find another lefty who can give them 50 innings, whatever. Maybe JA Happ.
I'd totally forgotten about it until this comment, but I remember reading an article (probably in the Star) early in this offseason that claimed that the Jays' option on Oliver was more or less irrelevant. Either Oliver would retire or he'd pitch somewhere else. This was before the Reyes and Dickey deals, so it probably didn't take the Jays by surprise. If Frye's ultimatum is serious (and I don't doubt that it is), the Jays should tell Oliver to enjoy his retirement.
They both played on the Rangers in 1995. Even better, Jeff Frye vs Darren Oliver:
$4m for 2012 and $3m for 2013 is slightly front-loaded.
I improved my GPA in undergrad for seven straight semesters before graduating.
Let's not discuss why that was able to happen.
If he's lousy, they decline the option. If he's good, he gets underpaid (at least in his eyes)
If Koufax hadn't posted that miserable 2.04 ERA in 1965, he'd have done it :)
Duane Ward also just about did it. In fact pitchers like Ward and Koufax, who were getting better at a young age and then were definitively hurt, would be the likeliest candidates.
I see what you did there. Very subtle. I salute you!
Because it beats working at Sears. Why is the assumption that the player always has the hammer?
Red's the kind of guy I was looking for, and he did it for six straight to close out his career. OTOH, his climbs were mostly small bumps (89, 108, 109, 110, 112, 115, 122), rather than the dramatic year-over-year improvements Oliver made. On the third hand, Red was also pitching a hell of a lot more innings than Darren.
Both are pretty damn impressive codas (if indeed this is all she wrote for Oliver).
You're right, I'm sorry.
Pedro Guerrero says ... ummm ... that word that he can't spell. Or remember.
Overpay for Affeldt, create jealousy among similar pitchers, create strife for those other teams. I'll bet a bejillion internet dollars that Oliver is in the Giants bullpen by July.
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