For more about Ned and Part 1 of this interview, click here.
When do you begin preparing for potential arbitration cases?
Tripp and I project likely arbitration salaries as the season progresses, but the work really begins early in the offseason. Preparing arbitration cases is a time-intensive process, and even though you hope to never have to go to a hearing, we spend a lot of hours making sure that we’re prepared if we end up having to try a case.
How did the organization feel about trading Jim Johnson?
We think the world of Jim Johnson. If we had an infinite payroll or played in a much larger market, we would have been able to keep Johnson and still added the players we added in free agency. Jim is a team leader, a community leader, and a first-rate closer. As you heard Dan say after the trade, we have to allocate our resources in the way that most improves the club, and we felt that trading Jim would allow us to pursue some of the free agents that were high on our board.
What exactly happened with the Grant Balfour deal, and how does the organization worry about the deal falling through at the last second affecting other free agent negotiations?
Part of the process in signing any free agent is getting advice from your doctors on what type of medical risk the player poses. No matter how much information you have, you can never predict injuries perfectly. Players that have huge medical red flags can stay healthy forever, and players with no injury history can get hurt right after you sign them. You’re playing probabilities. It’s important that we invest our resources into players that we think will be on the field and contributing to the team. Agents understand that medical reviews are part of the process, and based on our discussions the last few offseasons, Baltimore has become a very attractive place for free agents.
Briefly talk about the two marquee free agent acquisitions of the offseason, LF/DH Nelson Cruz, and SP Ubaldo Jimenez.
Cruz is a great fit for us, and I think we were a great fit for him. Adding Nelson makes us an even tougher lineup to navigate; he’s the kind of player that can change the game with one swing. Jimenez was fantastic for most of last season, and we’re excited about him carrying that into this year. Ubaldo can miss bats and keep the ball on the ground, which a good recipe for success in our ballpark.
As we discussed earlier, Dan did a great job reading the market and finding some impact players at prices that fit what we were able to do. We’re very excited to have both of them in Baltimore and think they’ll have great years for us.
How has the turnaround to becoming a more competitive franchise over the past couple seasons changed the way free agents look at Baltimore?
Earlier in my career here, our strongest selling point to free agents was opportunity. We weren’t very competitive, but we could offer playing time that other teams might not have been able to offer. As a front office, that allowed us some flexibility in the type of players we pursued. We could target high upside players that were out of options and didn’t have a spot to play, or players that were blocked by better players with their current club.
Opportunity is part of what made the Chris Davis trade work. Everyone knew the type of potential he had and the success he had at AAA, but he had been inconsistent in Texas, and they were an elite club trying to win the World Series. When you’re in that situation, you don’t have the at bats available to let a player work through that. Davis was a natural target. We could commit to playing him every day, and he knew if he struck out four times on Tuesday he’d be right back in the lineup on Wednesday. We obviously didn’t know he’d hit 50 home runs for us, but our scouts did a great job with Chris; they felt strongly that we might get a pretty good player if we just let him play.
As nice as that was, we’re glad to be in the opposite situation now. We’re a team that expects to be competing for a playoff spot. Instead of selling opportunity to second-tier free agents, first-tier free agents see what we’re doing and want to be a part of it. It’s been fun seeing Baltimore evolve as a destination for free agents.
The third and final part of this interview will publish on Saturday…
