In 7Mantle7 I have a SS I really like who is in Arb3 and I would normally nail down with a 5-year contract. (.748 OPS, .974 fielding percentage, about a dozen plus plays per season.)

Late last season he tore his ACL and is projected to miss this entire year (197 days remaining going into spring training).

He is asking for 11.5 m in Arb3, but only 7.75/year on a 3-year contract. If I was sure he would fully recover, I would take that 7.25 m rate and make him a 5-year deal.

It seems like the long-team deal might be discounted because of the injury - but the arb request is not, 11.5 is the highest arb request I have ever seen.

Other info: before the injury, his health was 99. My medical/training budgets are both maxed out, he has never experienced anything but $20 med/training budgets.

I was thinking of releasing and attempting to resign, because I can't see a lot of interest in a guy in this situation, but I'm afraid it will affect the healing process in a negative way.

thoughts?

You're 20/20; I'd re-sign him long term if I liked him as I said you'd do. And if he is that good - arb requests are based solely on current ratings as far as I know - as an outside owner with 20/20 I'd definitely look at him in FA.

Same. I would do a long-term contract. If his defense is that good, and guessing his offense is at least decent, he is worth it. Were his defensive ratings affected much?

his range was 85, now it's 73. his arm strength went from 93 to 91. error and accuracy were not affected by the injury

OK now that I've looked at the player: he can't play SS for me with 73 Range. That makes him a non-power-hitting 2B, 3B or corner OF. Now it depends how much I want one of those, and how easily replaced one of those is.

Thanks for the advice, damag & drummer. I pulled the trigger and signed him for five years. Now I just have to hope those high-priced medical people do their job!

Agree with the second damag comment.

I wouldn't have re-signed him... you'd have gotten him cheaper on the open market. He's now a kind of OK 2B/3B or incredible UT-- you'd play him at 2B or 3B very happily every day against RHP. And his range might get back to 77 or so, in which case he's also a credible SS 20 games a year against RHP while you rest your actual SS. But he's Ke'Bryan Hayes against LHP, and I'm not sure that's worth $7.25M against the cap.

Now that you've signed him, a platoon partner for him should be pretty cheaply available as an FA; I'd sign one.