Cleveland, OH
Why Your Team Sucks 2024: Cleveland Browns | Defector
Some people are fans of the Cleveland Browns. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Cleveland Browns. This 2024 Defector NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the previews so far here.
Your team: Cleveland Browns.
Your 2023 record: 11-6. These guys beat the 49ers, Ravens, Texans, and a handful of other real teams during the regular season. They even got to rest their starters in Week 18, because they had a playoff spot locked up. Somehow they managed to do this without their best running back, their best offensive tackle, and the starting QB they sold their damp brown soul for. They had to rely on a formerly couchbound Joe Flacco leading them down the stretch, and Flacco ended up winning Comeback Player of the Year, presumably by default, for it. Relative to their past, one can only describe this past Browns season as “triumphant.”
That’s pretty much the last nice thing I’ll say here. You genuises yoked your future to a $230 million anchor that’s marinated in 60 gallons of Dior Sauvage. You sported a championship defense last year. That’s not hyperbole. By every advanced metric, this Browns defense was as a good as … oh, I dunno, let’s say the 2000 Baltimore Ravens. All they needed was a modern Trent Dilfer (no, not that one) to safely game-manage them deep into the playoffs. Instead, they were forced to cycle through four different QBs, with Flacco somehow managing to be the best of them by FAR. Not good.
Also not good: Losing to the “rival” Steelers on a T.J. Watt scoop and score; letting Geno Smith beat them on a last-second TD pass that WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba caught behind the line of scrimmage; getting crushed by Denver in a game where Russell Wilson passed for a whopping 134 yards, and then getting destroyed by the Rams a week later. All of that should have clued you into the fact that this team wasn’t quite the sum of its parts. Well, that and the fact that THEY’RE THE CLEVELAND FUCKING BROWNS. The Browns couldn’t turn on a lamp without watching a YouTube tutorial first. So when these guys traveled down to Houston for a wild card game against the AFC South champs, did YOU think they stood a chance? Did anyone? Did they even think it was possible?
Judging by the 45-14 final score, they didn’t. Because hoo doggie, you boys got LIT THE FUCK UP down in Texas, by the same guys who tricked you into trading the deed to your city for Deshaun Watson. That’s right: Jack Easterby‘s team fleeced you. Now the Texans have an incredible young passer who makes them an instant annual Super Bowl threat, and you have … whatever this is.
Your coach: Two-time Coach of the Year Kevin Stefanski. Stefanski has never led these Browns past the divisional round, but all Browns coaches are graded on a curve that bends more than the GateKeeper at Cedar Point. In any other city, Kevin Stefanski would have had Cam Cameron’s career. Here, he’s the greatest head coach the New Browns have ever had. If he loses just one more playoff game, they’ll rename the entire city after him.
Everything bad about the 2023 Browns could be traced back to their shortcomings on offense, so Stefanski dumped offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt after the season and brought in this man to make everything better:
That’s former Heisman winner Ken Dorsey, who hates running the ball and whose Bills ripped off six wins in their final seven games after they fired him in November. Imagine YOU being the problem in Buffalo and not Sean McDermott. Dorsey must have pinned 500 photos of Timothy McVeigh to his office wall to be the bad guy in Orchard Park. He also couldn’t run a consistent offense with Josh Allen at his disposal. Now he has to do it with…
Your quarterback: Deshaun Watson, who ended last season on IR thanks to a broken glenoid bone in his shoulder. I don’t know what a glenoid bone is, and I won’t be asking Deshaun to show me where it is on his body. When this man gets injured, every physical therapist within a 100-mile radius has a nervous breakdown. But now he’s healthy (sure he is) and ready to live up to the unprecedented (still!) amount of guaranteed money that Cleveland offered for his services three years ago.
There’s just one small problem there, which is that he sucks.
Now I’ve done my fair share of wishcasting on other QBs whom I’ve found personally repugnant. I said Jordan Love was a flop, but he wasn’t. I said Ben Roethlisberger was never all that good, but he 100 percent was. But this time, I’m don’t have to pretend that Deshaun Watson sucks, because he actually does. According to the FTN Almanac, “Watson has yet to produce a positive season-long passing DVOA with the Browns.” He’s also never played a full season in Cleveland, has 14 passing TDs to nine picks, and the 2,217 total passing yards he’s amassed in two seasons with the Browns are less than half the passing yards he notched in his final season with the Texans alone. His completion percentage is way down. His yards-per-attempt average is way down. And reports out of preseason joint practices were that he was fucking terrible. NICE.
So this isn’t the Deshaun Watson you knew in Houston, and not just because he’s a monster. He’s washed, and will never regain his old Pro Bowl form. As such, the Browns were better off with Flacco at QB, but Flacco left for Indy this offseason. They better have replaced him with someone who knows what they’re doing. What’s that? Who’d they sign? Oh you gotta be shitting me…
This is the stupidest organization in football.
What’s new that sucks: Guess which team still didn’t have any first-round picks this spring because they traded for eternal infamy? To fix their offense, the Browns had to dig into the market for RBs D’Onta Foreman and Nyheim Hines, and then traded for Broncos washout Jerry Jeudy to be their WR2. They even gave Jeudy a contract extension worth $41 million guaranteed. Can I get a fat payday from this team? Like Watson and Jeudy, I too can’t play football for shit. Where’s MY golden parachute, Jimmy Haslam? How do I qualify for your Fuckhead Welfare Initiative? Do I need to dry hump an unsuspecting cashier and then fumble a can of soup down her shirt? Would that get me a bag? You fucking idiot. I hope you get run over by a semi.
Anyway, the roster. Even with Jeudy in the wideout room, Amari Cooper and the literal charred remains of David Njoku remain your only decent receiving threats. Hines and Foreman will be forced to assume too heavy of a workload should star RB Nick Chubb need extra time to recover from tearing every intact fiber inside of his knee last fall. But the defense? The defense is still insane. Free agent LBs Devin Bush and Jordan Hicks join an already loaded front seven, and the secondary remains talented enough for DC Jim Schwartz to play man coverage anytime he feels like it. Imagine if this team had a QB to pair with that defense. The mind reels.
Regardless, the schedule is soft enough that Cleveland could easily stage a repeat of last season, 57 QBs and all. Haslam is hoping that will be enough to get him the trophy he really wants:
Notice anything missing from those mock-ups? If you said “the city of Cleveland,” you win a free biscuit. Haslam and the Browns have already initiated the process of stadium grift, complete with vaguely threatening statements to move the team to the Ohio equivalent of Cobb County if Cleveland proper doesn’t hand them an attaché case filled with million-dollar bills. You’ve seen this movie many times over. The fact that it’s set in Cleveland this time makes the movie even longer, and more boring. I’d rather give a free stadium to the Proud Boys.
What has always sucked: By the time the Browns have gotten out from under Watson’s deal, their defense will be a shell of its former self. Good. This was precisely what you guys deserved for acquiring that man in the first place. You have everything in place: a good coach, an incredible defense, and a fanbase that’ll stay loyal even while you’re pissing down their leg. All you need is a QB. You thought Deshaun Watson would be that QB. SURPRISE, MOTHERFUCKER. He sucks forever, and so do you. You were already a pathetic franchise when you crawled back out of Lake Erie in 1999. Now you’re doomed to be hamstrung, both morally and football-wise, until the moon crashes into the Earth.
Browns fans are just as dumb as Steelers fans, only without the hardware to make it all worth it.
What might not suck: I really like that Zak Zinter pick they made in Round 3. Say what you will about this team (I just did), but they sure know how to put together an O-line.
HEAR IT FROM BROWNS FANS!
Jamie:
Our QB room increasingly looks like the guys who catcall you on your way to interrogating Hannibal Lecter.
Joey:
The team’s name is a color, but the logo is a different color.
Richard:
After the Browns traded for OBJ, my dad asks me if he should reserve a hotel room in Tampa during Super Bowl weekend in case the Browns make it. I talked him out of it. The Browns went 6-10 that year.
David:
See attached. I mean come on.
Rob:
We sold our soul, and the team’s future, for a rapist who isn’t even that good.
Kevin:
Imagine being able to legitimately argue that Joe Flacco is the best quarterback your team has had in *checks notes* decades. Fuck Haslam with an icicle made from Lake Erie’s nastiest industrial runoff.
Ed:
Jacoby Brissett in ‘22 and Joe Flacco in ‘23 outplayed our $230M, masseuse-abusing QB1.
Alexander:
I will never forgive the Browns for this. It will always leave a battery-acid taste in my mouth knowing we sold our souls for a chance to win and couldn’t even do that. The Haslams will move the stadium to the suburbs, and the Brads and Chads of Strongsville and Parma won’t have to trouble themselves with seeing a single black person on their way to drinking their morning 12-pack.
Don:
My best friend and I talked ourselves into traveling to the playoff game in Houston. This would be the first chance the two of us (mid 40s) could watch a Browns playoff game in person since 2003. Cost was not a factor.
The Browns trailed by 10 at half before Flacco threw TWO pick sixes in the second half. In summation, we paid $400 a ticket plus airfare and lodging to watch Paul Wall, Mike Jones and Slim Thug perform at halftime.
Dennis:
A fun fact about the Haslems is that Dee has managed her MLS club in Columbus to two titles in five years of ownership, while Jimmy is still polling hobos for Browns roster advice.
Isaac:
Right around the time the Browns clinched their playoff spot, a local singer dropped this ear-bleeder:
That right there should be enough to have the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame yoinked out of Cleveland and shipped to a more deserving city.
What made it worse is that local news anchors kept filming random fans (including one who looked a little too much like Kevin Stefanski) singing it and driving my poor dog up the wall.
Vince Guerreri:
I watched the Browns-49ers game last year with my friend and mentor, the Rev. Dr. Joe Boyle, at the Cleveland Clinic. I met Joe at the college newspaper when I arrived there in the fall of 1995. We bonded over our shared ire at the Browns moving. He bought Andre Rison and Eric Metcalf jerseys on closeout, and regularly wore them for decades afterward. He was an absolute lunatic as a Browns fan. We went to a game in 2013 against the Jaguars, and last three possessions ended with two Brandon Weeden interceptions and a Brandon Weeden fumble for a safety. Joe got so mad that the usher came to check on him. “I’ve been working here since the place opened, and you’re the angriest fan I’ve ever seen.”
By then, Joe’d been fighting cancer for more than two years. The five-year survival rate was grim, but he passed it. He passed the ten-year survival rate. But things started catching up to him. That summer, he had a stroke, losing vision in one eye. (The text I got from him that morning read as follows: “I can’t see out of one eye. Jacking off finally caught up with me.”)
In October, he went to the Clinic in a helicopter, but he was feeling well enough to take visitors. I came to see him for the Browns game, a stunning victory. When San Francisco’s Jake Moody shanked the kick, we yelled so loud that the nurse came and checked on us.
Joe actually rallied and left the hospital. He lived what passed for a normal life for another month. But he went back into the hospital, and it soon became clear he wouldn’t come back out. He died the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, two days after a stirring win over the Steelers and a day after the Browns signed Joe Flacco to the practice squad. I told the story of the Jags game for his news obit and wore a Browns tie to his funeral.
Joe watched Flacco torture the Browns. He never got to see Flacco rip off four straight wins as Browns quarterback, culminating in a playoff-clinching win over the Jets right after Christmas. That was the game where the Browns’ new sponsor, Dude Wipes offered a jersey exchange. They did not fully anticipate the demand. Every time Browns radio voice Jim Donovan had to say, “Dude Wipes: We Love Our Browns,” I could hear him die a little on the inside. But it was a time to believe in a little magic. Maybe the fates owed Joe one.
Instead, the Browns got the doors blown off against the Texans. Serves me right. I should have remembered that there is no mercy in the universe for the Browns. They haven’t been to a conference championship game since the 1980s. They haven’t won the division since the 1980s. In fact, the Browns haven’t had back-to-back winning seasons since the 1980s. And the Haslams do fundraisers for JD Vance.
Joey J:
Cleveland pundits still out here pretending the nasty man doesn’t exist.
John:
To say this franchise has mystique is like saying that tightly coiled pile your dog leaves on my lawn has aura. This team is a prison. But instead of fearing the hell I’m in, I’m beginning to appreciate the industrial decor.
Matt:
Being a Browns fan is a series of ironic punishments. Did you make fun of the Ravens for employing Ray Rice? Now you have Kareem Hunt as your RB. Did you make fun of Big Ben’s allegations and post that “Local Heroes Nab Sex Offender” meme? Now your QB has 23 victims (at least). Did you make fun of the Bengals’ white alternate helmets? Now you have them, and they’re even more generic looking. Did you make “elite” jokes about Flacco? Now he’s your savior.
Jared:
I think I preferred the team I watched most of my life: hapless, loveable lovers that everyone felt sorry for. Now I watch a moderately competitive team that hasn’t won anything but that everyone still hates.
When the Rams went with a “fuck them picks” strategy, they won a Super Bowl. My team tried that and got a serial abuser who’s only redeeming quality is that he was a good QB four years ago.
I guess it could be worse. At least I don’t have to convince myself JJ McCarthy is the answer, since we haven’t had a first round pick in 30 years.
Kyle:
Not much more can be said about why this team sucks, but I’ll try:
They fucking suck.
Thanks.
Submissions for the NFL previews are now closed. Next up: Dallas Cowboys.
Cleveland, OH
Man shot dead in Downtown Cleveland on Christmas Eve
CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – A man was shot dead in Downtown Cleveland early Christmas Eve morning, police confirmed.
The Cleveland Division of Police said officers were called to East 13th Street and Superior Avenue for a gunshot victim.
The call came in at approximately 3:30 a.m. on Dec. 24, according to police.
Officers arrived to find a 42-year-old man who was shot lying unconscious in the street, said police.
Police said officers quickly rendered first aid until Cleveland EMS arrived.
Cleveland EMS said he was in critical condition as they took him to MetroHealth Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
He has yet to be identified.
Police said no further information is being released at this time in the ongoing investigation.
Call the Cleveland Division of Police at 216-623-5000 and reference report #2024-370349 if you have any information on this incident.
This is a developing story. Return to 19 News for updates.
Copyright 2024 WOIO. All rights reserved.
Cleveland, OH
Browns stadium drama: Surveys, lawsuits, economic studies, and amendments, oh my!
The Cleveland Browns have just two games remaining before they close the book on their latest season of frustration and disappointment.
While everyone will get a much-needed break after the final whistle blows in Baltimore on January 5, one topic related to the team will most certainly not be decided anytime soon. And that is debate over where the team will be playing its home games in the future.
Team officials have made it clear they intend to build a domed stadium and surrounding entertainment district in the Cleveland suburb of Book Park. City and county officials have continually countered with their preference for the Browns to remain downtown on the lakefront and play in a renovated Huntington Bank Field, which has been home to the team since its return to the NFL in 1999.
For the Browns, team officials have been busy focusing on a campaign to win the hearts and minds of fans and politicians. This campaign started with the release earlier this month of an economic study conducted by RCLCO, a real estate consulting company.
According to a story on the team’s website, the main takeaways from the study include:
- A domed stadium can attract up to an additional 1.5 million visitors through a mix of year-round programming of various sizes and major events.
- A projected annual direct economic output of $1.2 billion across Cuyahoga County, as well as create nearly 5,400 permanent jobs.
- Total annual spending at bars, restaurants, and hotels downtown is projected to increase by about $11 million over what is generated today by the activity at Huntington Bank Field.
That was followed up last week with a team-led interview with Lance Evans, lead architect of HKS, the firm chosen to design the domed stadium.
Evans hit all the right notes, especially by appealing to fans when he discussed the approach to creating the Dawg Pound in a new stadium:
“You’ve got to start with the Dawg Pound and the idea that it is a celebrated item. When we were listening to the fan base about what they wanted in the building, number one was to restore the power of the fans of the Dawg Pound. And so, we’ve created essentially a wall, a vertical wall of fans for the Dawg Pound. We have brought them as close as we can to the players and to the end zone. We’re going to have the visiting team run out right beside them. It is going to be a raucous wall of electricity, and we’re excited about that. That informed the decisions, like really the seating bowl was informed, the whole design of it, around this idea of catering to the kind of fandom of Brown’s nation, which is palpable.”
Finally, the Browns have been conducting surveys to gauge interest in the idea of the domed stadium project. While some local media have made a big deal out of the surveys, they appear to be filled with the standard type of questions that are commonly used when undertaking a project of this magnitude, such as how important the addition of restaurants and bars is to the project, how often the survey respondent would visit the area on non-game days, and the like.
One interesting element of the surveys comes in a series of questions that lay out some potential price points for season tickets, including amenities like unlimited food and drink, or priority access to other events. The prices are not the actual prices, but are shown solely for “research purposes.”
No matter what the results of the survey say – either for or against the domed stadium – there is nothing compelling either side of the debate to act on the results, so it is probably a good idea to not get too worked up about their existence.
There are two areas that deserve some attention, both of which come from the government side of the debate.
The first comes from Cleveland City Council President Blaine Griffin, who confirmed last week that the city plans to use the state’s Modell Law to try and keep the Browns downtown. Griffin is joined in that fight by Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne.
The city first floated the idea of using the law, which requires owners of professional sports teams that play in a taxpayer-supported stadium to give at least six months’ notice before leaving and must give the city or local investors an opportunity to buy the team, in October.
While nothing official has happened, the city has hired the law firm of Jones Day to reportedly act as outside counsel as the city works on its response to the team’s position that the law is unconstitutional, according to NEOtrans blog.
Ronayne also continues to lead the fight to keep the Browns downtown as opposed to using public money for the Brook Park site, as the told NEOtrans:
“Cuyahoga County cannot afford to subsidize the creation of a second downtown with taxpayer dollars. I continue to ask for the downtown stadium renovation plan to be shared publicly and for the Cleveland Browns to come back to the negotiating table with the city of Cleveland to build off of the billions of dollars of investments already made in the downtown core.”
The second comes from the Statehouse in Columbus, where lawmakers closed out their year by giving the Cincinnati Bengals a tax break on their upcoming $120 million renovation of Paycor Stadium.
As part of an amendment to House Bill 315, the Bengals can exempt themselves from around $9.3 million in sales taxes if Governor Mike DeWine approves the proposal.
Ultimately it is a lot of posturing between the Bengals and Hamilton County officials, which you can read more about here. As it relates to the Browns and their plans, it is still unclear how the amendment could potentially impact a new or renovated stadium project, but it is something to keep an eye on in the coming months.
While the 2024 regular season is winding down, the battle over where the Browns will call home is far from over. As always, it is important to remember that the Browns current lease does not expire until after the 2028 season, so they are not going anywhere. And even if they eventually do land in Brook Park, it is only a move to the suburbs so they will still be the Cleveland Browns.
Cleveland, OH
MLB notes: Carlos Santana sold his Cleveland area house. A day later, the Guardians invited him home
The house in Bratenahl, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, had special meaning for Carlos Santana and his wife, Brittany. It was the first home Santana, a native of the Dominican Republic, purchased in the United States, back in 2012 after he signed his first multi-year deal. All four of the Santanas’ children were born in the Cleveland area.
Sentiment, though, goes only so far.
Last Monday, thinking he would never play in Cleveland again, Santana instructed a realtor to put the house on the market. A buyer quickly emerged. On Thursday, Santana signed papers completing the sale. And on Friday, as luck would have it, guess who called for the first time?
The Guardians, of course.
Santana, 38, played for Cleveland from 2010 to ‘17, and again in 2019 and ‘20. That night, he met in his Tampa apartment with his agent, Ulises Cabrera of Octagon, until 2 a.m., weighing final offers. The Seattle Mariners, Santana’s team in 2022, sought to reunite with him virtually the entire offseason, and were pushing for a resolution. Santana said both New York teams, Detroit and Arizona also were in the mix, while San Diego and Texas had asked him to wait.
The Mariners, according to sources briefed on the discussions, offered Santana a one-year deal with a player option for a second season, an extraordinary bid for a first baseman entering his age-39 season. But even though Santana’s home in Bratenahl was gone, he could not stay away.
On Saturday morning, he flew to Cleveland to retrieve some personal belongings from the house. Later that day, he agreed to a one-year, $12 million contract with the Guardians, turning down more guaranteed money from the Mariners, according to a source. His return to Cleveland only became possible when the Guardians recognized they could trade first baseman Josh Naylor to the Diamondbacks, a deal that transpired the same day.
“I cannot believe it,” Santana said. “It’s crazy.”
The 2025 season will be Santana’s 16th in the majors. He is coming off a year in which he produced a .749 OPS with the Minnesota Twins, his highest since 2019, and won his first Gold Glove. If he passes his physical on Monday, his $12 million salary will more than double the $5.25 million he earned last season. His deal also includes $1 million in incentives.
The Mariners, Santana said, were his initial priority. Seattle star Julio Rodríguez is one of his best friends, and pushed for him to return. But Santana first joined the Cleveland organization at the 2008 deadline, in a trade from the Los Angeles Dodgers for third baseman Casey Blake. He is beloved in both the clubhouse and community, and it is not out of the question he will one day enter the team’s Hall of Fame.
“I’m so happy coming back,” Santana said. “Cleveland has my respect. The fan base is one of the best. The coaching staff, they know me. Sandy Alomar, I’ve known him for a long time. I know (top executives) Chris (Antonetti) and Mike Chernoff. I know the owner, (Paul) Dolan. I have very good relationships with everyone in the office, in the organization. They love me, and I love it. I’m very excited.”
Santana’s family lives mostly in Kansas City, where he played in 2021-22. He also keeps a residence in Tampa so he can train in the winter. Yet for more than a decade, he held onto the house in Bratenahl, declining to sell it even after signing a three-year, $60 million free-agent contract with the Philadelphia Phillies in Dec. 2017.
A year later, the Phillies dealt him to the Mariners, and 10 days after that the Mariners sent him back to Cleveland. That, too, was a wild story. Santana had been planing to rent the Ohio home to his good friend, Edwin Encarnación – until Seattle and Cleveland traded them for each other.
Now Santana needs to find a new place in Cleveland, but compared to his final 24 hours as a free agent, that task will be relatively simple. His whirlwind through the open market, following his spin through the housing market, ended in a place he never thought he would never again call home.
Explaining the Guardians’ latest moves
Both teams that reached the American League Championship Series will open the season with new first and second basemen. The New York Yankees are simply replacing departing free agents. The Guardians’ moves were more jarring, but typical of the roster roulette low-revenue teams play.
The trade of Andrés Giménez to the Toronto Blue Jays enabled the Guardians to escape the remaining five years and $96.5 million on the second baseman’s contract. The trade of Naylor to the Arizona Diamondbacks, in combination with the Santana agreement, left the Guardians with a similar one-year financial commitment at first base, plus right-hander Slade Cecconi and the No. 72 overall pick in the 2025 draft. Cleveland now holds the 27th, 66th, 70th and 72nd selections.
Naylor, 27, is 11 years younger than Santana, and almost certainly would have departed as a free agent at the end of the 2025 season. Santana, thanks in part to his Gold Glove defense, produced the higher fWAR last season (3.0-2.3). As one of the team’s most beloved players in recent memory, he again will be a strong presence in the clubhouse, if less emotional than Naylor.
Cecconi, 25, was the 33rd overall pick out of the University of Miami in the 2020 draft, but has yet to establish himself in the majors, finishing last season with a 6.66 ERA in 77 innings. The Guardians are not sure whether he will start or relieve but believe he might benefit from working with their pitching group and competing in better pitchers’ parks than he did at Triple-A Reno and in Arizona. According to Statcast’s Park Factor, Chase Field was the second-most run-friendly environment in the majors last season, behind only Coors Field.
The Guardians have spent much of their offseason adding pitching, previously re-signing free-agent right-hander Shane Bieber to a two-year, $26 million contract, and acquiring righty Luis L. Ortiz as well as pitching prospects Josh Hartle and Michael Kennedy for infielder Spencer Horwitz. They also traded relievers Eli Morgan to the Chicago Cubs and Nick Sandlin to the Toronto Blue Jays.
Marlins flirting with CBA trouble
In early December, Evan Drellich and I detailed how the A’s need to add significant payroll this winter or else risk a grievance from the Major League Baseball Players Association. The Miami Marlins, who continued to tear down their roster Sunday with their trade of left-hander Jesús Luzardo to the Philadelphia Phillies, are treading on perhaps even more perilous ground.
Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement requires teams to carry a luxury-tax payroll more than one and a half times the amount they receive from local revenue sharing. A club in violation doesn’t automatically receive punishment but puts itself at greater risk of penalty if the union files a grievance.
The Marlins, like the A’s, are expected to be among the highest revenue-sharing recipients next year at roughly $70 million, if not more. Using that $70 million estimate, the Marlins’ luxury-tax payroll by the end of the season would need to be $105 million. Per FanGraphs, they currently are at $83 million. The A’s, following their additions of right-hander Luis Severino, lefty Jeffrey Springs and third baseman Gio Urshela, are at $90 million.
What’s amazing about the Marlins’ luxury-tax number is that approximately 45 percent of it is unrelated to their current roster. Two players no longer on the team’s 40-man, outfielder Avisaíl García and righty Woo-Suk Go, account for $15.25 million. Through 2027, the Marlins also are getting hit with a $3 million annual charge as part of their Giancarlo Stanton trade with the New York Yankees. And, like all teams, they are charged $17.5 million for player benefits and $1.67 million for their share of the pre-arbitration bonus pool.
Since the deadline, the Marlins have traded Luzardo, closer Tanner Scott, infielders Jake Burger, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Josh Bell, left-hander Trevor Rogers, outfielder Bryan De La Cruz and relievers A.J. Puk, JT Chargois and Huascar Brazoban. The next to go, provided he makes a strong recovery from Tommy John surgery in the first half, should be right-hander Sandy Alcántara, whose 2025 salary is $17.3 million.
Wouldn’t it be something if the Marlins had to keep Alcántara because their luxury-tax payroll was too low? The average annual value of Alcántara’s five-year contract — the number used for luxury-tax calculations — is $11.2 million. Shedding the prorated portion of that amount at the deadline would drop the team’s luxury-tax number by roughly another $3.7 million.
Can’t wait to see how the Marlins raise payroll, with owner Bruce Sherman kicking and screaming. Like the A’s, they have little choice but to spend.
The Sandoval deal: A record of sorts
While no official records are kept, left-hander Patrick Sandoval’s two-year, $18.25 million deal with the Boston Red Sox is believed to be the largest guarantee ever awarded to a player who was non-tendered.
The Milwaukee Brewers retained righty Brandon Woodruff on a two-year, $17.5 million contract prior to 2024. The Chicago Cubs signed first baseman/outfielder Cody Bellinger to a one-year, $17.5 million deal — the highest AAV for a non-tender — prior to 2023.
With salaries for starting pitchers soaring, the curious part of the Los Angeles Angels’ decision to part with Sandoval is that they could have retained him over the next two seasons for perhaps $6 million less than he ended up getting from the Red Sox.
Sandoval, 28, projected to earn $5.9 million in arbitration in 2025, per MLB Trade Rumors. He is not expected to return from Tommy John surgery before the second half, so his raise in 2026 would have been minimal.
Perhaps Angels owner Arte Moreno didn’t want to pay a player who was hurt, something he has done regularly with Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon at higher salaries. Perhaps Moreno and general manager Perry Minasian are hellbent on winning this upcoming season and wanted to use the $6 million for other pursuits.
The Angels tried to trade Sandoval before the non-tender deadline, according to a rival executive who spoke with them. But the industry effectively called their bluff, daring them to offer Sandoval a contract. They did not.
Rangers bullpen: A work in progress
Slowly but surely, the Texas Rangers are rebuilding their bullpen.
Four of the Rangers’ six most frequently used relievers last season — David Robertson, José Leclerc, Kirby Yates and José Ureña — are free agents, as is Andrew Chafin, who arrived at the deadline. The team has responded by signing free-agent left-hander Hoby Milner to a one-year, $2.5 million contract, righty Jacob Webb to a one-year, $1.25 million deal and — in a move that could prove to be a steal — acquiring lefty Robert Garcia from the Washington Nationals on Sunday for first baseman Nathaniel Lowe.
Garcia, 28, finished with a 4.22 ERA in 59 2/3 innings last season, but his 29.9 percent strikeout rate and 6.4 percent walk rate contributed to a much lower expected ERA — 2.53, according to Statcast. He has five years of club control remaining as opposed to two for Lowe, who is projected to earn $10.7 million in arbitration this season with another raise coming through the process in 2026.
Re-signing Yates remains a priority for the Rangers. The team quickly identified a left-handed hitter to replace Lowe, reaching an agreement Sunday with free agent designated hitter Joc Pederson, according to league sources briefed on the discussions.
Around the horn
• Is it possible the availability of St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado is clogging the market for free agent Alex Bregman?
The Cardinals, in their negotiations with the Houston Astros on an Arenado trade, were willing to include $5 million per season, leaving the Astros with approximately a three-year, $49 million commitment, sources briefed on the talks told The Athletic’s Katie Woo. Deferrals would have further lowered the present-day value of the Astros’ obligation if Arenado had not blocked the deal.
Arenado, who will play next season at 34, is three years older than Bregman. His OPS the past three seasons has dropped from .891 to .774 to .719. Bregman’s has fallen from .820 to .804 to .768. A team could bet on Arenado bouncing back, rationalizing he would be a better gamble than Bregman at a guarantee that could approach or exceed $200 million.
• A rival executive makes a good point about the Red Sox potentially pursuing either Bregman or Arenado:
If the Sox wish to move Rafael Devers off third base, why bother pursuing an external option when numerous internal options are available, or soon will be?
Those options include Trevor Story, who is under contract through 2027, as well as two prospects — Marcelo Mayer, who could wind up at shortstop or third; and Kristian Campbell, who seems more likely to land at second.
Of course, prospects are prospects, and Bregman, in particular, brings a special leadership intangible. But the Sox ranked ninth in the majors in runs last season. Their greater need remains pitching.
• First baseman Christian Walker, in moving from Chase Field to Houston’s renamed Daikin Park, is leaving the second-most run-friendly environment last season for the seventh.
Walker is so consistent, it shouldn’t affect him. His OPS+ the past three seasons was 25 percent above league average, 22 percent above and 21 percent above.
(Top photo of Carlos Santana with Cleveland in 2020: Ron Schwane/Getty Images)
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