Are John Axford And The Milwaukee Brewers Discussing An Extension?
Could John Axford be the next reliever to sign an extension? According to Tom Haudricourt that’s a distinct possibility. The Milwaukee Brewers have not officially signed their closer for the 2012 season, although that’s a mere technicality as he is not arbitration eligible or a free agent. While the Brewers don’t have an official extension in place, assistant GM Gord Ash explains why that won’t be a problem with regards to extending Axford:
“We have discussed several times multi-year proposals, have exchanged proposals back and forth, and at this point we’re not in the ‘deal zone’ so we discussed this week that we’ll probably have to settle on a one-year ‘place holder’ because of our impending deadline on one-year deals,” said Ash, who has been negotiating with Dan Horwitz of the Beverly Hills Sports Council.
“All of the conversations have been very pleasant. I don’t want to get into too much detail because we don’t negotiate through the press, but the game plan is to get this one year in place and then take the balance of spring training to talk (about a multi-year deal).”
Ash noted that the Brewers have done “place holder” deals in the past with players, getting a one-year deal done then moving on to multi-year talks.
“It’s not a problem,” Ash continued. “I’ve talked to John privately and through his agent, and I think he has been happy with the tone of talks. We have committed to each other to continue to talk.”
If a deal is to be made, Haudricourt suggests that it would be a 4 year deal which would cover Axford’s arbitration eligible years. Since Axford will be a Super-Two player, he will be able to go through arbitration four times. A typical player goes through arbitration three times, starting from when they reach three years of service. In order to prevent teams from manipulating the system, the players with the most service time between two to three years are determined to be arbitration eligible. This won’t affect Axford’s free agent status, as he won’t be eligible until after the 2016 season.
Axford sure didn’t take the easy way to the majors, as he was undrafted and had to play in the Independent Leagues before signing a minor league contract with the Yankees. Axford had always shown outstanding strikeout rates in the minors, but as a 25 year old with no control he had little value. He was released just one year after the Yankees had signed him, and then signed by the Brewers in 2008. It wasn’t until 2009 that Axford finally got command of his pitches, leading to a brief call up in the majors. He returned to the majors in 2010, and he’s been dominant ever since.
In 2011 Axford had a 1.95 ERA, went 2-2 with 46 saves and struck out 86 hitters while walking 25. It was a fantastic season for the right hander, and he will team up with Fransisco Rodriguez to form one of the best closer and set up tandems in the game.
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