{"id":93766,"date":"2025-01-14T01:13:37","date_gmt":"2025-01-14T06:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=93766"},"modified":"2025-01-14T01:13:37","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T06:13:37","slug":"baseball-insiders-discuss-free-agent-short-term-offers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/01\/14\/baseball-insiders-discuss-free-agent-short-term-offers\/","title":{"rendered":"Baseball Insiders Discuss Free Agents&#8217; Willingness to Take Shorter Deals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With many free agents still available on the market, Robert Murray and Adam Weinrib recently discussed the openness of some to accepting short-term offers with MLB clubs. Murray and Weinrib co-host the podcast &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/live\/jxysGQfpEvU\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Baseball Insiders<\/a>&#8221; and while they had a lot to discuss, one topic they focused on was the short-term offers and high average annual value (AAV) that Pete Alonso, Anthony Santander, and Jack Flaherty are seeking as <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/11\/25\/red-sox-rumors-latest-news\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">free agents<\/a>. Could their interest in short-term deals persuade other free agents to do the same?<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The Baseball Insiders: Roki Sasaki, Alex Bregman, Red Sox, and what we\u2019re hearing around the league. With <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AdamWeinrib?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@AdamWeinrib<\/a>: <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/HvR1lE84JI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/HvR1lE84JI<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Robert Murray (@ByRobertMurray) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ByRobertMurray\/status\/1878896054432882977?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 13, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Baseball Insiders Analyze MLB Free Agents&#8217; Openness to Short-Term Offers<\/h2>\n<h3>Quality Players Still Available on the Market<\/h3>\n<p>It comes as a surprise that free agents <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/02\/20\/scott-boras-bad-pete-alonso\/\" target=\"_self\">Alonso<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/12\/20\/bo-bichette-trade-rumors-blue-jays-soften-stance\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Santander<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/01\/02\/jack-flaherty-contract-rumors\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Flaherty<\/a> are still unsigned. While all three have a lot to offer to teams, the years and amounts they have been seeking have changed. The three were initially searching for long-term deals. But now the latest news has indicated that they would take short-term offers with high AAVs.<\/p>\n<p>In the case of <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/12\/09\/anthony-santander-blue-jays-red-sox-yankees\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Santander<\/a>, he was initially seeking a five-to-six-year deal from the Blue Jays when they presented him with a four-year, $82 million contract. But he is now shifting to wanting a short-term offer. A shorter deal is logical, as he is 30 years old and teams may be reluctant to sign him to a long-term deal. This could be because while he is a solid power-hitter who had an impressive 2024 season, he is not as adept with defense and baserunning speed. In addition, teams may be hesitant to sign him long-term if they don&#8217;t know if he will carry the same offensive power as he ages.<\/p>\n<h3>Some Free Agents Willing to Take Limited Deals<\/h3>\n<p>While this has left teams continuing to try and make these players counteroffers, signing them to short-term offers has various upsides. Weinrib discusses in the podcast how signing one of these elite players to short contracts provides teams with options. They can sign a short-term offer and if it doesn&#8217;t work out, it is easier to exit. Alonso would provide an <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/12\/23\/five-first-baseman-upgrades-seattle-mariners\/\" target=\"_self\">upgrade at first base<\/a> for many teams. He is currently projected to land a three-year deal with a high AAV and an opt-out after the first year.<\/p>\n<p>These short-term offers could be a means of providing more teams with the opportunity to sign free agents. Some teams may be skeptical about signing players to long-term deals. So, while it comes as a surprise that these big-name players are still available, their willingness to take shorter contracts could lead to interest from more teams. All three players could sign with a mystery team, helping those clubs contend in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With many free agents still available on the market, Robert Murray and Adam Weinrib recently discussed the openness of some to accepting short-term offers with MLB clubs. Murray and Weinrib co-host the podcast &#8220;The Baseball Insiders&#8221; and while they had a lot to discuss, one topic they focused on was the short-term offers and high [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4831,"featured_media":93802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1071,3,33,22],"tags":[2824,3207,2262,2402],"class_list":["post-93766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","category-orioles","category-dodgers","category-mets","tag-anthony-santander","tag-jack-flaherty","tag-mlb-free-agency","tag-pete-alonso"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4831"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93766"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93803,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93766\/revisions\/93803"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}