Scooping Up Schoop

It’s time for the Orioles to sign star second baseman Jonathan Schoop to a long-term contract.

With the Orioles seeming to have lost all leverage when it comes to getting any sort of positive outcome with Manny Machado, there is an old expression that seems particularly apropos — “Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right.”

While hindsight can always be 20/20, there is no question the home team nine has failed miserably in accurately timing and handling getting Machado’s signature on a long-term contract, or failing to move him at a moment in time when his peak value could have been realized.

According to Jim Bowden, a former Major League Baseball general manager and a regular co-host on the MLB Network channel on Sirius XM Radio, the Orioles and Machado’s representation did discuss a long-term contract a couple of years back and were only a few million dollars apart. According to Bowden, Orioles management had genuine concerns after one of two Machado knee injuries.

Machado blew out his left knee on Sept. 23, 2013, as he awkwardly landed his left foot on the left side of first base. This first knee injury came after Machado had played in all 157 games that the club had played. Machado’s second major knee injury occurred on Aug. 11, 2014, and caused him to miss the Orioles’ chase of an American League pennant.

Dan Duquette, the Orioles’ vice president of baseball operations, quickly pivoted at the winter baseball meetings in early December and put out the word that the O’s were willing to listen to offers for their superstar third baseman. With Machado having only one year of team control, be it in Baltimore or elsewhere, the offers for him are reflecting the reality that only three teams could both pony up the return Duquette needs to come away from his risky gambit.

Those three teams are probably the Cubs, the Red Sox and the Yankees. Sure you’ll read that the White Sox, Diamondbacks and Cardinals are interested.

Maybe Duquette gets lucky, despite the odds being stacked against him. And that leads us to No. 6, second baseman Jonathan Schoop. Fresh off his first 100-plus RBI season (something Machado has not accomplished), Schoop is now just two seasons away from being exactly where Machado is now.

Had the Orioles been confident enough in Schoop’s overall long-term value, the time to have pounced was after the low-end production in 2015. That season, Schoop batted .279 but hit 15 home runs and knocked in 39 RBIs in an injury-plagued 86-game season.

In fact, it was before the 2016 season that Schoop — along with five other MLB players — sold 10 percent of his future earnings to an investment company called Fantex. For that 10 percent take of future earnings, Schoop received $4.91 million. For the record, the other five players are Phillies third baseman Maikel Franco, Astros pitcher Collin McHugh, Twins pitcher Tyler Duffey, Blue Jays infielder/outfielder Yangervis Solarte and Angels pitcher Andrew Heaney.

When Schoop sold this percentage of future earnings, he was coming off a three-year period of having earned $1,537,000 (for 2013-2015). In 2017, his first full season under the deal with Fantex, Schoop made $3,475,000. This coming season, also an arbitration season, Schoop figures to make $9.1 million.

If the Orioles wait any longer, and Schoop has, say, a second consecutive 100 RBI season, the cat may be out of the bag, and perhaps Schoop could begin to be a $250 million man and about to play his last season in black and orange in 2019.

So what should the Orioles do?

It’s really quite simple; they must do the exact opposite of what they did in the Machado case. They must be aggressive this spring at getting Schoop’s signature on a seven- to eight-year contract for what is, and will be, fair market value. They need to thread this needle at the right compensation level.

For me, that figure should be somewhere around $150 million for a total of seven seasons, including 2018 and running through 2024.

Anything less and the Orioles may have just let their best two players over the past 35 to 40 years slip through their fingers for pennies on the dollar. That is simply not the way to run a winning baseball team.

Stan “The Fan” Charles is founder and publisher of PressBox.