Comments on: Felix Hernandez’s no-trade clause blocks 10 teams, including nearly all high-payroll clubs

By: marinersnate

marinersnate — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 06:27:47 +0000

Wow. Very true.

And can you imagine? They did ALL that without once feeling the need to trade the best pitcher in MLB for a bucket of balls. Go figure?

By: Jeremiah Graves

Jeremiah Graves — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 13:29:19 +0000

Remember a year ago when the Mariners were the toast of baseball and everyone was expecting them to run away with the AL West and be a sleeper for the World Series.

Huh…my how things change when they start playing the games.

By: marinersnate

marinersnate — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 05:06:09 +0000

“As a Yankee fan, I hope Felix stays in Seattle.”

Well, as a NON “Yankee fan”, I can not agree with you more.

Kind of how you “didn’t really want Cliff Lee”? (Er, I mean he, who shall not be named).

By: RichinNJ

RichinNJ — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 03:33:10 +0000

As a Yankee fan, I hope Felix stays in Seattle.

By: macjacmccoy

macjacmccoy — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 02:11:10 +0000

I dont get why everytime you here a guy with a no trade clause the teams he usually blocking trades to are the good teams. Maybe Im missing something but I dont get the logic of it. I would rather block a trade to a team like the Royals then say Angels. But for some reason it always seems to be the opposite in these situations. Maybe I just dont understand how these clauses work or are negotiated. I dunno.

By: marinersnate

marinersnate — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 22:53:03 +0000

“So… the Phillies can’t trade Blanton for him?”

That is actually a far more fair deal them most of the one’s that I have heard proposed by Yanks fans.

They usually come up with something like: “Let’s see. Jober, and any three prospects, er no, two prospects, not ranked in our top ten. Yeah. Heck how can they turn that down. We are over-paying!”

By: xmatt0926x

xmatt0926x — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 21:43:42 +0000

Exactly right on. Its not a coincidence that the teams on his list are the exact type of teams that would be trading for a future $20 million/year pitcher in the 1st place. Its strategy plain and simple. Look at that list and understand that he WILL be playing for one of these teams very soon. Its all leverage and he can extract more of what he wants to get him to accept a trade to one of the no-trade teams.

By: Utley's Hair

Utley's Hair — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 21:40:27 +0000

Alas, right now, that would not be a good move for the Phightins. Cole might get a bit huffy if he was knocked down to No. 5 in the rotation.

By: Lukehart80

Lukehart80 — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 20:19:34 +0000

I don’t think there’s anything cynical about asking that. I’m sure that’s exactly why they put the high-payroll teams on the list. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

By: mercyflush

mercyflush — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 20:10:32 +0000

So… the Phillies can’t trade Blanton for him?

By: uyf1950

uyf1950 — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 19:49:41 +0000

I noticed no one has even remotely suggested the reason Felix has those teams on his no trade list is because he loves playing for the Mariners so much he couldn’t stand to leave OR that he expects the Mariners to be a factor in the AL West. The simple fact is that Felix wants to have all the leverage over the Mariners should they decide to trade him and over whichever team might be interested in trading for him. It’s all about the money, don’t fool yourselves.

By: Cran Boy

Cran Boy — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 19:47:07 +0000

Oh come on, let’s be fair. Pretty much every Hernandez-to-the-Yankees trade I hear on XM involves not only a minor leaguer but also Joba, The World’s Most Famous Middle Reliever.

By: Jonny 5

Jonny 5 — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 19:46:14 +0000

He did that because it’s the smart thing to do. Now he will need to be wooed over to one of these teams, as opposed to finding out one night that he’ll be playing in another city the next day.

By: echolmberg

echolmberg — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 19:42:04 +0000

Aaron,

You may have missed this but WFAN is reporting that the Yankees are THE YANKEES and can clearly get ANY player they want in exchange for some random A ball pitcher who the NY media has hyped up for no reason. So I don’t know WHY I’d listen to reporting from FOXSports.com.

I mean [insert good player here] clearly will only want to get paid and [insert other team here] can never pay the player, so clearly that team should just trade the player to the Yankees and give up on trying to win, ever.

By: cur68

cur68 — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 19:35:19 +0000

oooo…didn’t think of that. Well, back to farm team status…

By: Professor Longnose

Professor Longnose — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 19:35:09 +0000

It could be that he wants to block those teams to have financial leverage if they should want to try to trade for him. It’s not necessarily true, but it makes just as much sense.

By: Cran Boy

Cran Boy — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 19:31:17 +0000

OK, cynical question: Could there be a strategy in putting the high-payroll clubs on the no-trade list in order to extort, I mean extract, a hefty no-trade clause waiver from them?

By: cur68

cur68 — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 19:30:12 +0000

I’m beginning to think the rest of the MLB sees the Mariners as a sort of farm club where they can cherry pick some talent from. Nice to see that isn’t the case.