This isn't a big deal at all, but it's been a source of some confusion, and it just came up again on Twitter, so I might as well address it. Ryan Langerhans, as we know, is out of options. When a player is out of options, that means that, if his team wants to send him to the minors, he has to clear waivers first. On waivers, he's available for anyone to grab, provided the claiming team sticks the player on the Major League roster. Should the player clear waivers without being claimed, however - as just happened with Yusmeiro Petit - he'll be off to his designated minor league stop.
Seems pretty straightforward. But what many people have noticed while surfing Cot's is that Langerhans has something called a split contract. So the question then becomes - does that mean the Mariners could send him to AAA without exposing him to waivers?
The answer is, no, they can't. All a split contract is is a contract stipulating different Major and minor league salaries. From Cot's:
Ryan Langerhans of
1 year/$0.525M (2010)
What this means is that Langerhans would get paid at one rate in the Majors, and a lower rate in AAA. That's all. If he spends all year in Seattle (or with another big league club), he'll make $0.525m. If he spends half the year in the bigs and half the year in the minors, he'll make something like $0.3075m. The studious reader will note that Langerhans had a split contract last year, too. Lots of guys sign split contracts. Split contracts don't have anything to do with options. My understanding is that it's just about money.
So, no, we didn't buy an extra option year for Langerhans or anything. If we want to send him to Tacoma, he'll still have to clear waivers. And were he to clear, he would simply offer the team a little bit of salary relief.
0 recs | 6 comments
Interesting.
I have wondered for awhile what the pay rate is for minor leaguers. I imaged a lot of guys would just get a bonus when they signed but then get some basic pay based off which level they are at.
mark sobba - February 19, 2010
Will be super bummed if someone claims him.
sanford_and_son - February 19, 2010
I can't think of a team (off the top of my head) who would claim him
Especially since he languished in the minors for a lot of last season and was had for almost nothing.
baetown415 - February 19, 2010
Based on this, I would assume that this guarantees him more money at AAA level.
I would think there wouldn’t be a point in signing a split contract if this wasn’t the case.
seattle_since_81 - February 19, 2010
Yes, it guarantees him $90,000 a year pro-rated.
Since I believe the Triple-A minimum is somewhere around $40,000*, this is nice insurance for Langerhans.
*Though I believe the minimum is higher for a guy with Langerhans’ service time in the minors.
Teej - February 19, 2010
I think this helps the team more than Langerhans
I’m not good at this stuff so maybe I’m missing something, but had Langerhans just signed a Major League contract, he would’ve earned that salary regardless of whether he was in AAA or the bigs.
Jeff Sullivan - February 19, 2010
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