Contract Crowdsourcing Results: Juan Uribe

Juan Uribe, playoff hero*, is not worth much more than Jhonny Peralta, says the crowd. Or, at least, the expectation is that the contracts they sign this winter will be similar, which either bodes well for whoever signs Uribe or quite poorly for the Tigers. On to the results.

Average length: 2.06 years
Average salary: $6.02 million

Median length: 2 years
Median salary: $6 million

Standard deviation, length: 0.63 years
Standard deviation, salary: $1.99 million

This is, essentially, the standard middle infielder contract signed last winter. Marco Scutaro signed this deal to play shortstop for Boston last winter, while Mark DeRosa took it from San Francisco to be a play-everywhere guy. Placido Polanco got this deal plus an extra year to play third base for the Phillies, while Miguel Tejada and Orlando Hudson got the one year version of this contract. $5 to $6 million was the going rate for these guys, with the negotiating point really being on the years instead of the dollars. In fact, the Giants gave this same contract to Freddy Sanchez last year.

Peralta joined the group entering into that contract last week, and now the expectation is that Uribe will also find himself in the same situation when he gets around to signing. Given the abundance of guys signing this kind of contract, expecting Uribe to land in the same area makes a lot of sense. From an overall production standpoint, if not a player type, he’s pretty similar to the rest of the group – wrong side of 30, +3 win player if you like his defense to hold up, +2 wins if you don’t, and some positional flexibility to boot.

So, 2/12 for Uribe seems like a pretty good bet. However, I think he might end up with a little bit more than that, maybe edging towards the Polanco side of things, due to his power (which is generally higher priced than other skills) and my belief that we’re in for some inflation this winter. I’d probably put him down for 3/20 or something in that range. Given that Peralta just signed for 2 years and $11.5 million when he’s demonstrably worse than most of the guys who signed a similar contract last winter, I’d imagine Uribe’s agent will also be making the inflation argument when negotiations begin.

*Uribe hit .149/.196/.277 in the playoffs this year. I know he hit some big home runs that helped the Giants win the World Series, but I’m just saying.