Who botched things for Ryan Madson?
Madson stuck with a 1-year deal
Who botched things for Ryan Madson?
Rich Hofmann, Daily News Sports Columnist
Nobody will need to hold a benefit for Ryan Madson. If reports are accurate, he is in the process of doing a 1-year, $8.5 million deal with the Cincinnati Reds. He is safely in the 1 percent. Again, no tears.
But how did this happen?
How did he and agent Scott Boras miscalculate the market so badly?
I still would love to know how the whole Phillies thing went down. Reports stated that a 4-year, $44 million deal with Madson was imminent, and then it suddenly wasn’t. The Phillies went instead for Jonathan Papelbon and for $50 million, and Boras was left to talk about what a strong market still existed for Madson and et cetera.
But was there a real offer on the table to Madson from the Phillies, and if there was, why was it pulled back? If Madson and Boras had said yes at some point in the process, would Madson still have been here?
And who miscalculated the dynamics of the marketplace so badly? Was it Boras, squeezing so hard that the Phillies said ouch? Was it Madson, insisting that he was worth more? Or was there never a real offer on the table, and just discussions that ended when it became clear to the Phillies that they could get Papelbon instead?
If the Phillies thing was real, it was a lot of money, and it came from Madson’s current team. It also was from a team that has, in recent seasons, proven itself to be a market trendsetter. The Phillies -- with Raul Ibanez and Ryan Howard, to name just two -- arrived early and with the keys to an armored car full of cash. They guesstimated the market and they acted first and they were willing to deal with the second-guessers who said they overpaid. In both of those cases, Ibanez and Howard, they likely did overpay and still did not care and still will not care as long as you keep buying tickets at the going rate.
So if there was an offer, or something pretty close to an offer, you wonder what it was like when Madson and Boras discussed it, either face-to-face or on the phone.
Did Boras tell him to sign it? Did Madson want to sign it? Did Boras tell him he could get more from somebody else? Did Madson insist that Boras promised all along to get him more?
In other words, who drove this bus over the cliff?
The spin undoubtedly will be that they decided to take the 1-year deal because the market was lousy, and that if Madson pitches well this season, he will be able to cash in next year -- and it might just turn out that way. But when you do the risk-reward calculation, the risk being carried by Madson is enormous. Pitchers have health issues because that is what they do for a living. Closers have consistency issues because that is the nature of the position, it seems. You pitch in a bullpen, and you do that as your life’s work, and you never know.
Now Madson bears all of that risk and Boras goes about his lucrative business and the Phillies go on with Papelbon. And the rest of us wonder if it was the agent or the client who botched this thing so badly.
You sound jealous....and jilted. Good for Madson. Hope the Reds beat the Philadelphia Yankees.— dontlikeneocons
Comment removed.- Hey Rich...you are a reporter, act like one. Cultivate a source and go find answers to your own questions. This is written like you just took stenography from a local bar. This is why you guys got scooped on the Conlin story, and the Richards trade, and the Carter trade et al. You are not reporters at all. — Joe Devola
- I thought the point was that we don't know if we could have had Madson for 44M? did we pull our offer off the table? did Madson/Boras reject it? — shagsrc
- I thought the point was that we don't know if we could have had Madson for 44M? did we pull our offer off the table? did Madson/Boras reject it? — shagsrc
- This is baseball scotch breath. They do not play it in phroaig land. — johnny eagle
- Philadelphia Yankees? Wow too funny, but don't hate the teams, hate the Commissioner and the CBA for allowing overpayment and not having a hard salary cap
— jamarder - Rich, if ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we’d all have a merry Christmas. Speculating in journalism should be a futures market and not about the past, if you don't know what happened, go and find out for us. You are the one with the shiny press credential and (alleged) contacts. Go snoop and find out which of your myriad of possibilities of why Madson gets the short end before writing a speculative piece about what might have been. How many question marks are in this short piece? Inform the public rather than ask a series of banal questions which cover all of the bases (pun intended).
- Agreed, chiefohara - good post.
The IdleRich title is not ironic, but the truth. When was the last time he did go to work and sort out one of this issues - and the poster follow on with the same opinionated drivel following the Philly.com 'journalistic' lead. Several of the 'journalist's' here are lazy and speculate as @main pointed out several comments/articles ago.
It leads to banal responses by the commenters, who feel enabled by the lack of facts, data, and analysis to post comparably feeble responses. As of this comment, 90 posts on this byline - what a waste of energy, time and resources. Just by my calculation, taking average salaries, time from work, and projected potential income, $1M dollars worth of valuable time and energy has been wasted, all instigated by this error in judgement.
The horror.— 24sDad - Boras is brutal but Rube manages like there's no cap with limits upgrades & maybe re-signing players. Good luck & 2008 WS thanks to Maddog-sorry we didn't get a decent deal-hopefully Paps earns his crazy long term $.
- It's not a hard question to answer. Greed is what happened here. Lets assume the phillies offer was 4yr for 44mil. His agent said you can get more from another team or Madson said he wanted more, either way Madson could have taken the offer against his agents wishes.— The Goalie
- How about Amaro being the one that botched the situation. Grossly overpaying in years and dollars for the marginal value a reliever provides. Why set the reliever market, there was more of a supply then a demand for late inning relievers the papelbon contract was atrocious and once again the Phillies will be paying for past performance. Tampa Bay has had it figured out for years, you don't even need a defined closer just use your best reliever in the highest leverage situation.— Ed Gein
- Marginal value? Yeah... tell that to the Giants, Yankees, Phillies, Red Sox (ahem) all of whom would not have won their World Series without Wilson, Rivera, Lidge and Papelbon. — Jerome99RIP
- You are assuming some Jason Motte or JC Romero or whomever couldn't have stepped up and gotten a couple of outs. The Phillies made it to the World Series without a closer in 2009 and lack of a closer didn't cost them the title. — jtj06
- A lack of closer didn't cost the Phillies the title in 2009? Ha! I guess you forgot Brad Lidge imploding in Game 4 and Rivera saving Game 4 & Game 2 for the Yankees. Closers are extremely important and there's loads of empirical evidence to support that. If some of you want to play seamhead contrarian and contend otherwise, that's fine. — Jerome99RIP
