3/1/20

Mack – FWIW – Alexander Ramirez, Minor League Salaries, Ronny Mauricio, Dead Money

THIS guy is the one we want to keep an eye out once the DSL leagues open:


            Alexander Ramirez - Position: OF        Age: 17 DOB: 1/13/2003

Bats: R Throws: R  Height: 6'3" Weight: 170 lb.
Scouting grades: Hit: 50 | Power: 50 | Run: 60 | Arm: 50 | Field: 50

Ramirez's athleticism has been the key to his success an amateur and the belief is that his natural abilities will help propel him through the Minor Leagues and ultimately to the big leagues.

The tall and large-framed teen already shows advanced hitting skills and knowledge of the strike zone. He makes solid contact at the plate and is known for hitting line drives to all fields. He has shown flashes of emerging power and projects to be an average hitter.

What's certain is that Ramirez is true center fielder and has the skill set to stay at the position as he grows and develops. He projects to be a plus runner and that skill will help make him into an above-average defender, but ultimately, the team that signs him will decide where he fits best and put him on a path to the Major Leagues.

Mack – We’ve done well in the last few International drafts. SP Robert Dominquez, catcher Francisco Alvarez, and outfielders Freddy Valdez and Ramirez all seem to insure us as a bright future come 2024.


Rian Watt Fangraphs - wrote about the proposed increased minor league salaries –

$400/week ($4,800 for a three-month season) for Rookie or short-season (up from $290/$3,480)

$500/week ($10,000 for a five-month season) for Class A (up from $290/$5,800)

$600/week ($12,000 for a five-month season) for Double-A (up from $350/$7,000)

$700/week ($14,000 for a five-month season) for Triple-A (up from $502/$10,040)

Assuming that players work an eight-hour workday five days a week (which is an assumption you’d make only if you both knew nothing about how long minor leaguers work and also were feeling extremely generous towards the league), the new pay scale works out to an hourly minimum wage of $10, $12.50, $15, and $17.50, respectively. Assuming even 50 hours a week puts everybody below $15 an hour; 60 hours a week puts everyone below $12. And all of the scenarios assume either that players are independently wealthy or that they’ll fit their year-round conditioning and training in around finding some other way to make money seven or nine months out of the year.

            Mack – This is still at least 50% less than it should be.


SNY TV had 4 Mets as part of their Top 100 prospects. One was:

          17. SS Ronny Mauricio

After signing with the Mets back in 2017 for a then-team international free agent market bonus mark of $2.1 million, Mauricio made his full season debut last year and was the youngest player in the Sally League. In his minor league career, Mauricio holds slashes of .270/.306/.374 with seven home runs and 72 RBI.

Law sites Mauricio as "a very athletic shortstop who's already above-average at the position, while at the plate, he has lightning in his hands, and has power that he hasn't gotten to yet because he's still so young and because he's putting the ball on the ground too often."

Mauricio will need to get under the ball more in order to reach his 25-plus HR potential, but "a shortstop with this kind of bat speed who can already make contact against pitchers two to four years his senior has huge potential," and could become a Top 5 prospect with a big season in 2020.


Fangraphs featured some graphs on the amount of ‘dead money’ each team has this season.

They were:

Released Players Owed Money in 2020
Player2020 Money OwedTeamCurrent Team/Status
Wei-Yin Chen$22.0 MMarlinsMariners
Jacoby Ellsbury$21.2 MYankeesFree Agent
Troy Tulowitzki$14.0 MBlue JaysRetired
Zack Cozart$12.7 MGiantsFree Agent
Héctor Olivera$8.5 MPadresReleased
Prince Fielder$9.0 MRangersRetired
David Wright$9.0 MMetsRetired
Ian Kinsler$4.3 M*PadresPadres Front Office
*Kinsler’s remaining guarantee was to be negotiated with the Padres as part of his front office role.


Players Owed Money in 2020 Removed From 40-Man Roster
Player2020 Money OwedTeamTraded Team
Yasmany Tomas$17.0 MDiamondbacksMinors
Rusney Castillo$14.3 MRed SoxMinors
Odubel Herrera$7.4 MPhilliesMinors
Yaisel Sierra$6.5 MDodgersMinors


Traded Players Owed Money in 2020
Player2020 Money OwedTeamTraded Team
David Price$16.0 MRed SoxDodgers
Jay Bruce$11.6 MMarinersPhillies
Kenta Maeda$10.4 M*DodgersTwins
Zack Greinke$10.3 MDiamondbacksAstros
Mike Leake$9.0 MMarinersDiamondbacks
Prince Fielder$6 MTigersRangers
Héctor Olivera$4.7 MDodgersBraves
Mike Leake,$4.0 MCardinalsMariners
Edwin Encarnación$4.0 MMarinersIndians
Robinson Canó$3.8 MMarinersMets
Giancarlo Stanton$3.0 M**MarlinsYankees
Evan Longoria$2.2 MRaysGiants
Starling Marte$1.5 MPiratesDiamondbacks
Corey Kluber$.5 MIndiansRangers
*Of the amount the Dodgers are sending the Twins, $7 million is tentative and based on Maeda’s incentives vesting.
**Technically, the Marlins haven’t paid the Yankees anything until after Stanton doesn’t opt out, but for the competitive balance tax with the Yankees and Marlins (ha), $3 million is prorated over the life of the remaining deal.



9 comments:

Zozo said...

I wish we still owed Jay Bruce his money :(

Tom Brennan said...

Exciting write up on Mauricio. Reads like a future big star. Ramírez could well have everyone excited this time next year.

Somehow, David Wright is still owed $$...beware long terms contracts ending in a baseball player’s twilight years.

Tom Brennan said...

Solid raises only in terms of percentage. Still what we used to call “Cooley wages.”

Reese Kaplan said...

Or Curly wages...time to bring back the Curly Shuffle.

TexasGusCC said...

Tom, Wright’s deal was a good deal, but he got hurt and tried playing through the injury. While it’s tempting to wonder how much Jeff Wilpon’s insistence that players play hurt had to do with this, it has never been brought to light that Wright was pushed by anyone to play hurt.

Zozo, we can’t hate BVW’s enough for screwing our team, but they had a chance to pull out when they found an injury to Diaz, but they had to “steal” Cano so badly.... when he didn’t even want to be traded to another team...

Tom Brennan said...

TexasGus, that is one reason I like this Mets team. People wonder where Cespedes will play - one injury to someone and suddenly there is sufficient room. David probably thought, "If I don't play thru this, the team will disintegrate." So you push and really get hurt. On this team, they'd tell him to rest up and heal.

Mack Ade said...

Wright did everything he could to play baseball again.

Not like others with injuries.

Hobie said...

Love these FWIW columns, Mack.

1. I'll wager that if the fuel in the current SS pipeline (Rosario, Giminez, Mauricio) it is the bigger, stronger Ronny M who becomes the CF'er.

2. I'd trade a reduced MiL affiliate enrollment for a living annual salary wage for the signed. Independent leagues could showcase the rest at levels listed with MLB teams bidding on their stars post-season.
...that's a thought experiment (I think).

bill metsiac said...

Yes, MnL players (and coaches/mgrs, too) are vastly underpaid. But even with that, how about the "MnL systems" of the NBA and NFL (aka NCAA)?

Even minimum salaries are better than zero.