Updated Tribe Salary Distribution with JRaMVP

The Indians have added to their list of long term control players by guaranteeing Jose Ramirez $26M with a chance to make up to $50M with escalators and options. With this, Ramirez becomes the first Indians player to have a guaranteed salary in both 2020 and 2021 and is the first to have an option year in 2022 or 2023. They must really like his hair, because the 2016 star will be around for a very long time. His full salary breakdown as well as the rest of the team is listed below.

The Ramirez deal was very similar to other low risk signings they have made in recent seasons, in fact, it was almost identical to the dollar with the deal given to Michael Brantley in 2014 and the multiple escalating option years match what they have done with Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, Jason Kipnis and Yan Gomes.

These options are a combination safety net and long term bonus. If a player is injured or under performs over the guaranteed portion of the deal, the Indians can always cut ties with little risk (and in the case of Ramirez, they are only on the hook for $1M total for both options). However, to this point, the Indians have either used the available options (like with Carlos Santana in 2017) or appear extremely likely to use the options (like with Brantley in 2018, Carrasco in 2019, etc).

As a pre-arbitration eligible player, Ramirez will help his situation immediately by grabbing a $2M signing bonus in addition to his near league minimum salary this year. After that, the amounts for each of his three seasons that previously would have been arbitration eligible (2018-2020) seem slightly lower than what he would have earned, but the fact that they are guaranteed eliminates the risk of earning nothing at all. The biggest risk for the Indians is the $9M for his first year of free agency (2021), but considering how much baseball contracts have been inflating from year to year, that could be the average price for a utility infielder and Ramirez should be hitting his prime at 28 years old.

In all, this model of doing business is likely going to be the future of not only the Indians, but much of baseball. With players regularly pushing $20M per year through free agency, every team is looking to lock up as many players for as many years as possible early on.

For the Indians, this could potentially mean they could have something they haven’t had for a very long time, a franchise player. Since Bob Feller, the player who played the longest for the Indians without playing for another franchise has been Rafael Perez at seven seasons. It doesn’t happen much in baseball at all anymore with the Yankees holding the few notable recent exceptions by having three (Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada), but maybe this style of contract extension could lead to the next Feller for the Tribe. Between the six players already with some commitment into the next decade and those expected to be among the next group (there have been some rumors on the Lindor front), it could possibly happen and maybe, just maybe, it will be a conversation to broach about JRaMVP when he’s finally nearing free agency in the Summer of 2023.