Contract Crowdsourcing 2019-20: Ballot 1 of 10
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 this offseason, the idea being to harness the wisdom of the crowds to the end of better understanding the 2019-20 free-agent market.
Below are ballots for nine of this year’s free agents — in this case, a collection of infield sorts, primarily first basemen and second basemen. Numbers are prorated to full season where noted. Projected WAR figures from the final update of the 2019 Steamer forecast.
Meg is the editor-in-chief 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 Bluesky @megrowler.fangraphs.com.
Needs to be a minor league contract and no contract option.
It’s a very good suggestion — we’ll look at it for next year’s exercise.
For example, I can’t imagine Duda is signed to a major league contract.
Also, I put down that Abreu would be extended and would sign a QO, but the form still required me to enter contract details.
I handled that in a way where I estimate the contract assuming the player does not receive/accept a QO. I do realize, however, that if the player does receive a QO but declines it, that can make a world of difference on what teams are willing to pay him, so even that isn’t the best way of handling it.
I just put the QO amount. Though I honestly think he gets boned by the market if he turns down the QO.
My guess is that Abreu gets and accepts the QO, then the White Sox sign him to something a little longer – say 2 or 3 years. Or they even just sign him to that during the 5 day exclusive window after the WS. They seem to like him more than other teams do, he likes them, and they don’t have a lot of other options unless they plan on moving Collins or Jimenez to 1B, which just opens up holes elsewhere.
Maybe they let him shop around a little to see what he can get somewhere in that process, but with the QO hanging around his neck that probably isn’t a whole lot. My guess is that he is their 1B opening day 2020.