Yasmani Grandal did not end up with the type of free agent deal he had hoped for this winter, but the catcher did have other options beyond the one-year contract he signed with the Milwaukee Brewers.
Grandal said he turned down “a lot of good deals” to sign with the Brewers, and Robert Murray of The Athletic reports that he had multi-year offers from the New York Mets, Chicago White Sox, Minnesota Twins and Los Angeles Angels. However, Grandal indicated those offers were for lower average annual values, and he felt he would be doing an injustice to other catchers by accepting them.
“One of my responsibilities as a player is also to respect the guys going through this process before me like Brian McCann, Russell Martin, Yadier Molina, to mention a few of them,” Grandal said. “These are guys who have established a market and pay levels for a particular tier of catchers like myself. I felt l would be doing a disservice taking some of the deals that were offered even though they were slightly more long term.”
Grandal, who is still very much in his prime at age 30, will make $16 million in his one season with the Brewers. The contract has a mutual $16 million option for 2020 that seems unlikely to be picked up. Had the catcher market not been so robust this offseason, Grandal likely would have gotten better offers.
When you hear about some of the offers he reportedly turned down, it’s fair to say he is taking a pretty significant gamble on himself.
