Contract Crowdsourcing 2020-21: The Kolten Wong Ballot

by
October 28, 2020

Free agency begins five days after the end of the World Series. As in other recent offseasons, FanGraphs is once again facilitating a contract-crowdsourcing project, the idea being to harness the wisdom of the crowd to better understand and project the 2020-21 free-agent market.

This year, we’ve added a few new features to the ballots based on reader feedback. You now have the option to indicate that a player will only receive a minor-league contract, or won’t receive one at all. We’ve elected to show averages from the 2017-2019 seasons so that this year’s shortened slate doesn’t skew the numbers, but we’ve also included 2020 stats as a point of recent reference. 2020 salary figures represent players’ pre-pandemic contract amounts. Statistics are prorated to full season where noted; the projected WAR figures are from the first cut of the 2021 Steamer600 projections.

Below is a ballot for one of this year’s free agents — in this case, Kolten Wong, whose $12.5 million 2021 club option was declined by the Cardinals today.





 

Meg is the managing editor of FanGraphs and the co-host of Effectively Wild. Prior to joining FanGraphs, her work appeared at Baseball Prospectus, Lookout Landing, and Just A Bit Outside. You can follow her on twitter @megrowler.

29 Comments
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Fredchuckdave
3 years ago

Pretty baffling decline unless every player is ridiculously underpriced this year; that’ll do wonders for future labor peace I’m sure.

8
MorboTheAnnihilator
3 years ago
Reply to  Fredchuckdave

Honestly I think Mozeliak is on the way out sooner rather than later.

2
sadtrombonemember
3 years ago
Reply to  Fredchuckdave

Part of it is that salaries will be depressed for most players this offseason, but another part of it is that he plays second base. The market for second base has been ludicrously soft the last few years.

I think that Wong should land a multi-year contract if he wants it–maybe a 3-year contract?–but it’s going to be for an AAV less than that option. He’s probably one of about 15-20 players who has a good shot at something more than a one-year deal.

6
mikejuntmember
3 years ago
Reply to  sadtrombone

Yeah I went 3/24 myself

1
sadtrombonemember
3 years ago
Reply to  mikejunt

Ha, that’s exactly what I predicted too.

0
Doug Lampertmember
3 years ago
Reply to  Fredchuckdave

I’m shocked. Even if players are undervalued, he’s still worth a lot unless you’re expecting/worried that next year will duplicate this year. I’d have picked it up just for trade value.

3
estone2005
3 years ago
Reply to  Fredchuckdave

Gorman could end up at 2B by mid-2020 at best. Who knows. He has an average arm grade so stick him over at 2B where he could be one of the best offensive-minded 2B while being a likely competent defender. But his lack of range leaves me to believe he should probably stick at 3B over 2B. They also have Tommy Edman who can play 2B, even though he had an underwhelming 2020.

0
tdouglas
3 years ago
Reply to  estone2005

Some players can make that transition, but they’ve gotta be really solid at third and athletic as heck. Gorman is absolutely not gonna move to second; there’s a good chance he only stays at third until Goldschmidt leaves. And sure, the Cardinals have players to pencil in at second and third. The problem is that one of them is Carpenter, who is in severe decline and is now the presumptive starting third baseman in 2021.

1