Boras Blinks: Stephen Drew Re-Signs with Boston
Last off-season, the Red Sox made Stephen Drew a qualifying offer, giving him a chance to return for 2014 with a $14.1 million salary. He turned it down, and sought a multi-year offer in free agency instead. No offers came, and the Red Sox moved on. They brought Xander Bogaerts to camp as their regular shortstop, and gave Will Middlebrooks a chance to reclaim the starting third base job. While Boras made noise about the problems with the qualifying offer system, he continued to suggest that Drew’s market would emerge once the draft occurred and the attached compensation pick went away. The draft will be held in two weeks, and so Drew could have signed with any club as a “true free agent” 16 days from now.
Instead, today, he essentially accepted the qualifying offer from the Red Sox, taking a pro-rated version of the $14 million salary he turned down seven months ago. Once he’s ready to resume facing live pitching, Drew will presumably once again take over as the Red Sox shortstop, with Bogaerts shifting back to third base, and Middlebrooks serving as depth or a trade chip once he returns from the DL.
For the Red Sox, this move is essentially a win-win. They get an immediate infield upgrade, especially with Middebrooks hurt, and yet continue to leave shortstop open for Bogaerts in the long term. Re-signing Drew for 2014 doesn’t close the door on Bogaerts moving back to SS again next year, and they avoid the long-term contract that Drew was seeking at the beginning of the off-season. While the Red Sox remain a contender in a mediocre AL East, they needed to get better, and this was the easiest way to improve their roster at the present time.
Additionally, the Red Sox benefit by not letting Drew sign with another AL contender. While the Tigers are running away with the American League Central, they still have a gaping hole at shortstop, and signing Drew after the draft to bolster their chances of winning in the postseason would have likely been a legitimate consideration. While signing Drew won’t single-handedly put the Red Sox back into the postseason, keeping him out of Detroit might very well prove to be a significant factor if the Red Sox end up facing the Tigers down the stretch. At the very least, they’re going to force a competitor to pay a higher price in trade to upgrade a weak spot, and there is value in forcing your competitors to pay higher prices.
For Drew, this is probably not a bad outcome either. Multiple reports have suggested that returning to Boston was his first choice, and while he forfeit about $4 million by not playing the first two months of the season, he did gain the right to not be eligible for a qualifying offer after this season, so he could very well make that difference up in his next contract if he plays well down the stretch. $10 million this year plus the chance at free agency without compensation might very well be more lucrative to Drew than $14 million with the threat of another qualifying offer.
Of course, if the plan was just to hold out long enough to avoid another QO, Drew could have theoretically offered to take this same deal back in April, and still received a larger share of the annual salary. But, perhaps the Red Sox really weren’t willing to sign Drew without giving Bogaerts and Middlebrooks a fair shake. Perhaps they needed to let the kids who came to spring training have a shot at the regular season before handing the job over to someone who didn’t come to camp on time. Perhaps rather than the Red Sox waiting on Drew, the last six weeks have been about Drew waiting for the Red Sox to come around.
Either way, this is pretty clearly a positive result for Boston, and not a bad one for Drew either, at least relative to his options over the winter. The fact that the qualifying offer created this situation remains unfortunate, but this isn’t a disaster for anyone. The Red Sox get an upgrade without a long-term cost, Drew gets to return to Boston and escape the qualifying offer system, and Boras gets to remind his future clients that turning down the qualifying offer in November doesn’t mean that that offer will disappear forever. I’d still like to see the QO system revamped or improved upon, but this is the kind of outcome that might reinforce MLB’s position that the system works well enough. And if Scott Boras hates the system, well, maybe to them, that’s a feature, not a bug.
Dave is the Managing Editor of FanGraphs.
Every time I hear about Boras I see a picture of Borat in my head.
(Sorry, totally off topic)
Do you see this, all of you who attacked me yesterday? This is proof that you sabermetricians don’t really care about baseball!
quit fishing for page views and pandering to the lowerest denominator
I thought Scott Boras had an offer in hand. I’m shocked that an agent would lie.
All I want to know is if Gammons’ tweet was accurate: https://twitter.com/pgammo/statuses/447464581322264576
“GM today said Scott Boras insists he has three years and $39M on the table for Stephen Drew”
Boras probably did insist that he had that offer. My guess is that Gammons’ tweet was accurate, but Boras’ statement was not.
Geez, Dave, did you have pre-written or something?
Anyway an important angle I haven’t heard is about the RS’ leadoff spot. This year Boston has a .316 OBP leading off (down from last year’s .348). Drew put up a .333 OBP last year (not leading off), so I wonder if this is a move to rectify that situation as well.
FWIW, Drew has a .343 career OBP from the leadoff spot, though that’s mostly in the 2007-2012 time frame.
I hate the Red Sox for this. Don’t they have an outfield problem to address?
Yeah, when a team has one problem it should never address another problem.
How does this impede that? No Of’er was available as a free agent. They had a problem on the left side of the IF and offensively against RHP’ers. This works wonderfully for them, thanks the the Mets and Yankees collective dumbness/cheapness a quick fix was available
Why would the Yankees or Mets want Stephen Drew? Both teams have cheaper options on the roster. The Mets have zero use for a mediocre one year stopgap shortstop at $14M. The Yankees already have four players for two positions (Solarte, Roberts, Johnson, and Ryan). Its doubtful Drew would be much of an upgrade over three of those four, and certainly not at that cost. With respect to the Yankees, it may all be beside the point in any case, since Drew may be opposed to moving off shortstop in a year he is trying to win a long term deal as a shortstop.
Drew would be a significant upgrade over each of Jeter, Roberts, Johnson and Ryan. Ryan can’t hit, Johnson can’t play short, and Jeter and Roberts can neither hit nor play short.
Drew would be a significant upgrade over the Mets’ Reuben Tejada as well. Tejada can’t play short, hit, nor even run the bases. At this rate, Reuben Tejada’s terrible playing will likely cost as much as Drew’s salary plus the draft pick (Tejada is currently on pace for -1.6 WAR).
My guess is that neither team was willing to do a multi-year deal, so Drew decided to return the Red Sox, who were willing.
The idea that the Yankees would have, or should have signed Drew to replace Jeter during his retirement year celebration tour isn’t even worth considering. …that said, I’ll take even money that Jeter still out hits Drew this year. Drew is a terrible hitter. Drew’s career year doesn’t even come close to Jeter’s career average. Jeter’s career worst year would be among Drew’s best. Jeter’s last full season at age 38 is better than any Drew has ever had.
So, the Yankees don’t need a shortstop, and Drew isn’ t a significant upgrade over the Yankees second and third base options, if he is an upgrade at all.
I agree that Drew would probably be an upgrade over Reuben Tejada, but what is the point? Why would the Mets want to blow $10M to go from 75 to 77 wins, when Drew is not going to be part of their longterm plans?
2014 Derek Jeter is not 1996-2012 Derek Jeter. He can’t even be expected to be 2012 Derek Jeter.
A healthy Drew can be reasonably expected to put up a 90-110 wRC+, while playing good to great defense.
My wildest dreams for Jeter are a 90-110 wRC+ with absurdly terrible defense.
Obviously, the Yankees were never going to sign Drew to play SS, but it’s unqualified homerism to claim that he wouldn’t be an upgrade over this current iteration of Derek Jeter.
Oh, and he’s a massive upgrade over Brian Roberts and Kelly Johnson. He would be elite defensively at second, to go with the fact that he’s a better hitter than KJ, and a much setter one than Roberts.
I hear Xavier Nady’s available.
They won’t once they call up Mookie Betts.
If I had to guess, I’d say the Red Sox blinked by putting the offer back on the table. It would make more sense if they made the QO and then went about their offseason plans as if Drew wasn’t going to return and they had the money to spend than it would for them to leave that salary slot open on the off chance that he wouldn’t sign with anyone else. Then, with Middlebrooks injured and generally sucking, they decided to essentially put the discounted QO back on the table.
For Drew to think that $10M and no QO next year is worth more than $14M, he’d have to believe that no QO is worth $4M. That seems highly unlikely to me.
Really? You think the qualifying offer isn’t worth $4 million to the player? Look at the contract difference between Garza and Ervin Santana, two guys that were expected to get fairly similar contracts before the offseason started.
Obviously, that’s just one data point, but I have a hard time believing that the QO wasn’t a major reason for the discrepancy in pay.
There was a lot of debate over who the best free-agent pitcher was this off season, but general consensus seemed to be Garza-1, Ubaldo-2, Santana-3. Garza signed for 4/52, Ubaldo 4/50, and Santana 1/14.
I think Santana’s 3 seasons with an above 5 ERA has more to do with him not getting that $90 million contract than the qualifying offer.
How about Santana vs Ricky Nolasco?
Nolasco signed for $12 million per year, and Santana for $14 million. Nolasco got more years, but Santana supposedly preferred a one year deal, a chance to prove his 2013 wasn’t a fluke, and another shot at free agency.
Ricky Nolasco was a bad signing by a team that has one highest incentives to hoard picks, and is still with in spitting distance of what you would expect his contract to be, relative to Santana.
And if Santana’s worth so much more than $14 million a year, why didn’t the Royals up their offer. They’ve been operating in win-now mode since at least the Will Myers trade. Or the Orioles, who had already lost their pick and have a clear need. If the Braves are giving up an extra $6-$7 million in draft pick, than these teams should be able to offer Santana anywhere from $15-$20 million and still consider it a bargain.
Drew/Boras don’t even want the QO because the forfeiture of a draft pick scares teams away.
It’s kind of a bad result for fans of baseball, no? Stephen Drew is a pretty good baseball player who will end up sitting out the first two months of the season because of the weird QO deadzone in which a player is worth more than the QO but less than the QO plus a draft pick. (Or, I guess, less than his reserve price plus a draft pick.) It’s hardly a tragedy on the order of a Trout or a Tulo sitting because of salary disputes, but I can’t see the fan upside in the structure of these rules.
That’s adorable that you think they worry about the fans.
I think Dave cares about the fans, so I was just introducing an additional party (beyond the Red Sox, Drew himself, and the Tigers) that has an interest in how these offer rules affect behavior.
You’re right, Stephen Drew signing with the Red Sox is a bad result for Red Sox fans. Now we have to suffer the Drew family longer, which means more apathetic looks on called third strikes.
Damn youre right!
Interesting point about the tigers. That would be an interesting way to value a move as well – not just adding WAR to your team, but removing that potential WAR from a rival as well.
Ha. Desperation move by both parties.
It’s only Boras blinking if you believe Drew would have gotten anywhere close to $10 million for the rest of the season. Unless he gets injured, he’s making a lot of money while still being set up to get multi year deals this offseason with the QO over his head.
Without* the QO over his head.
Getting away from the QO is what its all about for Drew. The Red Sox were the only team that could grant him that wish until the draft.
That doesn’t make sense. The draft is only two weeks away. If that was really his motivation (and this offer was always on the table, which I doubt), then his motivation for taking this deal would have gone down to virtually nothing.
Maybe the threat of him hitting the open market with no comp to them was enough to get the Sox to up their offer. If he waits til the draft, he’s lost another month by the time its all said and done. Money and results that will get him his next contract drifting off.
I don’t think this is right. Since the season has already started, and a player must play an entire season to, um, qualify for a qualifying offer, Drew would be certain to be exempt from the QO no matter who he signed with.
The only difference, as far as I can tell, is that the Bosox are the only team who can sign him now (pre-draft) without losing a draft pick, so he presumably gets a couple weeks of pay out of Boston that he would lose out by waiting to sign with a different team not wishing to lose a draft pick.
My comment was more towards adding onto the original one. Alex said at the end of his “while still being set up to get multi year deals this offseason with the QO over his head” – so I said that was what it was all about, more important than the actual $ amount, he doesn’t want to repeat the process of a QO. Yes, as soon as the season started that was off the table, and obviously its been a big thorn in Drew’s side as far as getting offers. He jump started the process of “earning” a multi year offer by signing now instead of after the draft, he can only do that with Boston because no team will give up the pick. More clear?
Nice outcome for Drew. The “sign after Opening Day” thing is a bit of a loophole that I think guys will start exploiting more next year. You negotiate a contract with a player, then wink-wink don’t sign until April 2 or something. You lose a couple weeks in which you’re in extended ST, but who cares.
That loophole really isn’t one: only with your former team that’s put the QO offer on you. Otherwise its lose the draft pick time.
You’ll care when you miss the playoffs by one game.
April games count too you know.
Most any player offered a QO (or most any player, period), over a 1-3 game sample, would be worth a small, small fraction of a win.
While it’s possible that (for example) Drew’s 0.05 WAR (over, say, Middlebrooks, with Xander shifting over to 3B) would make a difference in the Sox playoff chances, the odds are very remote.
I don’t like this deal. Xander Bogearts should be the everyday shortstop because that is where he will be in the future. You can’t say he is learning to play SS and move him off the position and expect him to get better.
I know the problem is really Will Middlebrooks. But I don’t want to write him off yet. His plate discipline was a bit better this year and his BABIP is quite low for his profile and seems due for regression. He is injuried, but I’d rather be trotting out Cecchini and Bogaerts than Bogaerts and Drew
I agree 100%. Not only are they yanking one of the top prospects in baseball between positions, they are essentially giving up on a 25 year-old power hitting 3B prospect.
Granted Middlebrooks has been a disappointment overall and was off to a rough start, but in the second half last year after coming back up he went 276/329/476 with a 344 wOBA and 114 wRC+. Drew hasn’t topped those wOBA and wRC+ numbers since 2010 and is only 331 and 96 for his career. I can’t imagine he’ll come close to that this year after missing so much time. Also, what happens if/when Drew gets hurt? Xander moves positions once again and a confidence-shaken Middlebrooks comes back? That potentially ruins 2 prospects’ long-term outlooks.
I understand that having 2 SS’s on the left side should be a big defensive improvement and Drew is an offensive improvement over Brock Holt, but the whole thing seems desperate and short-sighted.
Desperate and short-sighted? It’s a one-year deal at a sticker below what they were willing to pay 6 months ago, offering high-quality depth that can spell Bogaerts/Middlebrooks more often when they’re healthy, and provide serviceable performance full-time in case of injury.
Unless Cherington had something better to do with that 10M, I don’t see any downside here.
I think it hurts the development of both Xander and Middlebrooks while reducing their value.
Not short sighted financial. Short sighted developmentally.
Can’t they just bench Drew when Middlebrooks comes back? I doubt he will be confidence shaken if they said “Hey, you are injured, so we got someone to play while you were injured. Now you’re healthy, so here’s the job back”. I also can’t imagine Bogearts long term outlooks are hurt by this, IIRC he wasn’t considered a good fielder to begin with so he might end up moving to third anyway (He has positive fielding numbers on his page, but he has actually posted negative numbers and just been bouyed up by positional adjustment). Then again, I’m biased because I do not think Middlebrooks is someone to worry about blocking because I do not think he is that good: He strikes out a lot, does not have a high BABIP profile so you would think his power has to be his skill, but he did not flash a ton of power in the minors and since he does not walk like an Adam Dunn it might not matter because he has struck out a ton at pretty much every level. In addition he plays poor defense. I see him as someone like Brett Lawrie in the sense he had a quite good rookie/half season campaign that makes people overrate him for the next 3 years, except Middlebrooks’ was worse.
Also have we heard if Drew will play SS or if he will slide to 3B? I presume Drew will take SS too but they could tell him to move to 3B, since he has the skills to be defensively good there and being good at multiple positions would raise Drew’s value. They could also trade Drew at the deadline, couldn’t they?
Why would they do that, though?
Drew is a good hitter. Middlebrooks is not.
Drew is a good SS. Middlebrooks is a mediocre-at-best 3b.
Drew to SS and Xander to third is a huge upgrade for the Sox, both offensively and defensively.
Yeah, I think the issue you have with the move stems from your mistakenly believing Middlebrooks’ future is worth worrying about.
I think Bogaerts is more of a 3b than a SS stop. I base this not on his size or any of his defensive metrics, only my nightly viewing of his play.
Your reputation precedes you and everything, but I’m going to go with the professionals on this one.
Actually most scouting reports seem to believe that Bogaerts will eventually grow out of shortstop……
So you’re going to go with the professionals who all say that he’s not going to stick at SS long term?
I don’t think there is much question but that Cherington has made an executive decision that Middlebrooks will never figure it out at the dish, and that Boegarts development will benefit by taking some pressure off him. True or false, that is what is going on. Middlebrooks is done at Fenway.
Will Middlebrooks isn’t good at baseball.
This was an absolute no-brainer for the Red Sox, and is something they should have done over the winter.
Well, they tried. Remember?
I still think the QO tax isn’t really affecting player offers as much as people claim. Looking at what the players end up getting with a QO and what players without a QO are getting still falls into line. Hart and Morse get 1/6 deals while Cruz gets 1/8. Cruz also had the Orioles only giving up a 2nd round pick instead of first round. Ubaldo and Santana get more per year than Kazmir. Santana and Ubaldo came back from being terrible while Kazmir was an injury risk.
I just don’t see the actual results of the QO really hurting anyone’s market. Most of the people who seem to have difficulty signing also seem to have demands far beyond their talent.
All of the people who had difficulty signing also had demands far beyond their talent level.
You can blame that on greedy agents. Or maybe just one.
Everyone except his agent would’ve been better off if Drew had accepted the QO when it was offered.
But no, because greed.
And then the godfather of greed has the gall to get up and accuse the system of being broken and unfair. The system worked fine. All that was wrong was that there were people involved in the system with in$ane expectation$.
In retrospect your statement would be true. However, at the time, Drew would have been heavily criticized if he only accepted the QO. A 2+ deal was a slam dunk according to every respectable writer in the business.
2+ years, but at what price? I don’t see Drew as being significantly better than Omar Infante, who signed for 4/30.
It’s a sad world when a shortstop with no more talent than Drew would be “criticized” for accepting $14 million to play one season with a quality team.
Have you seen my market, by any chance?
I’ve always thought there was a common sense answer to compensation: compensation can only be applied the first time a player signs a free agent contract. This would eliminate the ridiculous case in which a team receives compensation for a player they originally signed as a free agent.
Or you could just do away with compensation picks altogether.
I’m not clear on this, but if he sox end up being sellers in a couple months, couldn’t they just pay drew to play for someone else the rest of this year and get back a prospect in the b-b+ range? Maybe higher if they find a trade partner with needs and surplus? It seems like this is a good use of assets for Boston. If they are willing to offer 14million just for the chance to play the QO game, you’d think they’d be willing to pay 10 for a chance like this. Of course, that is in addition to the actual value that Drew brings on the field. It’s not a slam dunk, but that option provides good value on the downside.
This is a good point I think. When Middlebrooks is back can’t they just trade Drew?
Or they could improve their team by keeping WMB off the field…
Is it just me, or if Boras loses, do you feel as happy as I do? Sure, he may be a good agent, but… If his attitude/mouth/high profile ways have to take a hit, thats fine by me. Like a kid, agents should be silent until spoken to.
Silent period. Seen but never heard.
So Stephen Drew will earn more for 4+ months of work this year than he earned for the entire 2013 season … and, as Dave Cameron notes, Drew will not be saddled with the qualifying-offer pick next offseason.
Yeah, hard to see where he and Boras blinked. I am pretty sure they do it again to get this outcome. Of course, they wished a 3-4 yr deal at 12 million AAV was around, but with so few teams bidding due to the draft pick compensation, it was not there. Yankees should be interested next year with Jeter gone. They cant afford Hanley with Arod and Dre is the best of the rest.
There was some concern Drews season last year was a fluke. Another good year should reduce that concern, and staying healthy should alleviate the injury concern. Missing 2 months could be the best thing that ever happened to Drew. He has to stay healthy and put up the numbers though
Yankees will be all over Lowrie next winter.
So Stephen Drew wanted a 3 year deal at $12 million per, and is happy that he lost $4 million this year because it means he wont have to stoop to accepting a $14+ million deal next season? Instead of making at least $28 million over the next two seasons he will make $22 million, assuming skipping spring training and the first two months of the season doesn’t have an adverse effect on his performance.
What he made last season is irrelevant, no? This is all aboout negotiating for your best deal now and in the future.
To suggest that blowing $4 million this year on a bad judgment call, and being “saddled” (hah!) with an offer of $15-$16 million for yet another year, as a bad thing, means that you may have made the same misjudgment as to what Drew will make out in the real world over that same period of time and beyond.
Boras certainly makes a lot of good calls, but because of his anti-QO agenda, he and/or Drew really booted this one.
It’s quite possible, and even likely, that teams will value not sacrificing a draft pick at more than the $4M he gave up.
#panicbutton
Boras blinks? What would you know about blinking, Dave? ;p
The AL East is ours!!! Boston Strong 4 Lyfe haterz
To me its a big Win for Boras. His competitor is the one who blinked with Cruz. Boras got the best he could in this collusive market and I am not sure he and Drew would not do it again to get this outcome
Big difference between accepting a QO and having to accept another QO situation next year and accepting what amounts to prorated QO money after the date when you will be free from another QO. They basically paid 4 million to get out of jail and should realize a 5-8 million gain next season, perhaps more than that with more teams bidding.
This deal was not available in April, so that was not an option.
Don’t feel bad for Drew, he makes more than last year for 2 months less work. Might even put up better rate numbers as a result of the shortened season.
Yankees are the big losers here. Instead of a 3 win gain by signing him and moving Solarte to 2B their competitor is 3 wins better. Net loss 6 wins. Kiss to division good bye thanks to Hals budget
Mariners should take heed and do the same with Morales. Morales might boost Canos anemic power numbers
This is Stephen Drew. Who on the Redsox is he a 3 win upgrade over, and who on the Yankees would he have been a 3 win upgrade over (especially considering he only has a partial season to work with)?
He’s a 3 win upgrade over WMB, who sucks.
and he’d likely ve a 2 win upgrade over any of the Yanks’ middle infielders, due to his ability to hit a little and to play SS. Solarte is the only guy particularly close.
But how good do you think Drew is? He isn’t a good player either. If he has a really lucky year, maybe he is worth three wins this year, but probably less. He’s already missed 200 plate appearances. That means best case scenario is that he has about as many plate appearances as last year. However, last year was pretty aberrant and unlikely to be repeated. The guy was about replacement level the years before last. The guys he is replacing would have to be sub-replacement level for there to be a crazy six win swing. They aren’t.
Oh, so he was about replacement level the year he came back from a massive ankle injury? You don’t say! Seeing as how you consider a player’s performance in that situation to be at all indicative of their true talent, I’m surprised that you don’t expect him to upgrade on Jeter, who was even worse in that situation.
Also, I don’t understand how you consider Drew putting up a 105-115 wRC+ for the third (fourth if you count 2006) time in his career more “aberrant” than his having his worst season since 2007 coming off a serious ankle injury.
Drew has shown that he’s a 2-4 win player, when healthy. Middlebrooks is a 0-1 win player. That’s a 1-4 win swing, which I called “3” for the sake of simplicity.
Seriously, man. Chill with the mixture of uninformed Drew hate and naked Yankee homerism you’re rocking right now. As a fellow Yankees fan, it’s not a good look.
It’s a big upgrade for Drew to play short and for Bogaerts to play third and have actual production there. Middlebrooks and subs have played at replacement level or below. Bogaerts + Drew = 6 wins give or take. Bogaerts + Middlebrooks/subs = 3 wins give or take. As for the Yankees, Drew would’ve certainly been an upgrade over Kelly Johnson and Brian Roberts and (depending how hard he regresses) Solarte.
Boy, you really mis-read this one, pft. This is already a poster-child for Boras’ failed approach with these guys, placing his own anti-QO crusade above the interests of his current clients.
The “jail” Drew just paid $ 4 million to get out of is a “jail” that, over the course of two QO offers would have paid him $30 million in two years, well more than he would have, or will, make on the open market or outside of that “jail”.
Just a fundamental misunderstanding of the player’s and/or agent’s part of the market and value for these particular players. Dropped ball by Drew/Boras for sure, and well played by the Sox in this case.
$8 million gain next season?! That means Stephen Drew gets a deal over $22 million dollars per season.
Brock Holt? At least that’s the impression the Red Sox give when every single time something happens where it seems the guy is going to get some playing time, they immediately do something to make sure he doesn’t.
Hah – the “threat” of getting another QO offer after the 2014 season (which will be north of $15 million – how threatening!) just means that Drew would have, in retrospect, made around $30 million for 2014 & 2015.
Anyone here think Drew was going to do better than that on the “open” market? Nope – it was either terrible advice from his agent (who had his own anti-QO interests in mind over his client’s best interests – imagine that), and/or a fundamental misunderstanding on Drew’s part of his actual market value.
Well played by the Red Sox.
I take issue with calling the AL East “mediocre”. I know the records aren’t very good by now but a very good Rays team is in last place.
This is a fun piece to look back at now that the Red Sox have turned out to be awful, but not nearly as awful as Drew. A QO level offer for next year seems unlikely, and going into his age 32 season he’s got a future as a spare part middle infielder struggling to get paid more than Daniel Descalso.