Tendering Casey Fien: Pros And Cons

On the other hand, regarding ARBITRATION:

At the end of the season, if a player is eligible for arbitration, the team has a certain window with which to offer arbitration to that player. Offering arbitration doesn’t necessarily mean the two sides will go before the arbitrator. It simply means the team is interested in retaining the player’s services. A good amount of times, the team and player continue to negotiate before the hearing and settle on a contract....from http://viewfromthebleachers.com/blog/2007/12/01/mlb-arbitration-explained/

You are correct.  They won't necessarily go before an arbitrator.  As I mentioned before, they have until the arbitration hearing is complete to negotiate a deal.  

Tendering a contract to a player, is the same as saying the team is willing to go through the arbitration process to keep that player around. 

I'm not sure what the conversation has turned to here.  The original question was whether the player could reject the team tendering a contract to them.  The answer is no the play cannot reject it and become a free agent. 

I don't know how the QO thing got built into this conversation.  That is a separate thing that does not apply to Fien being tendered a contract.  

As far as Fien goes, I don't think tendering him a contract is the worst thing.  I have to agree with others that he shouldn't be the 8th inning guy, but he does have some upside if he's more of a 6th inning guy.  

I wouldn't get myself in too much of a twist if Fien is back.  I'd just like to see new faces in the pen next year.

This is one of the areas where Ryan's conservative nature really hurts him, in my opinion.

 

The 6/7th inning guys shouldn't start with mediocrity. Fien is a mediocre reliever.

 

Guys like Nick Burdi or Alex Meyer aren't going to get the call to Minnesota and become the closer or 8th inning guy overnight. They're going to start in a lesser role and work their way forward in the pen. A guy like Fien blocks higher upside players from getting to the Majors quickly and testing their ability to compete.

 

I see virtually no upside here and marginal downside. Mostly, I think it's pointless.

 

Though if Ryan doesn't hesitate to release Fien or trade him the moment the Twins have a better option, Casey is a fine safety net.

Well, yeah. He's better than Stauffer.

I think some of the confusion about Fien, a tendered contract, and free agency stem from the "Ortiz situation".  Ryan tendered Ortiz a contract for a fixed amount and the threat that if he [Ortiz] didn't accept the offer [counter-offer to begin a negotiation potentially leading to an arbitrator's decision] that Ryan would withdraw the offer--making Ortiz a free agent.  There has been no indication  that Fien's offer is contingent on him accepting the original offer.

As has been posted earlier, the Twins can take Fien (with a signed contract) to Spring training, cut him, and not be liable for the full value of the contract.

It sure isn't an indicator that the bull pen is getting any better.

Keep in mind this is a 1 year contract if the young guys bump him from the pen. Easy to move in a trade.

How so you know if they tried to trade deunsing. They were trying to upgrade the pen last year. No one was graduatin to the majors and Fien is better.

Boy, the bullpen list of names is pretty...lame. Throw in May and or Milone/Noalsco from the rotation. You still have some questionables that no one else probably deems a major league MUST (Darnell, O'Rourke) ... a couple of Rule 5 pickups that can still go up and down and one of which is an emergency starter candidate (wait, we have May) -- Graham/Pressly. You have Tonkin because..... You have Meyer being too valuable to cut loose. You kept Dean. You kept Rogers because he gives you left-handed starting depth or COULD be a long-arm out of the bullpen next season. You have a couple of guys coming off surgery that you didn't want to gamble losing, although don't see them jumping to the Big Leagues fulltime in 2016 (like at least a half-dozen other arms. possibly ahead of them in the system, could also do). And then you have Fien, who I fear could be Burton 2.0. Fien had good trade value in 2015, but didn't go anywhere. He was solid, but also unspectuacular at times, in 2015 -- and no one was calling his name in 2015. For all intent and purpose, Jepsen replaced him in the bullpen forthe next season.

We are still waiting to see if we lose anyone of importance in the Rule 5 (Jones) and then we can really cry about a couple of Twins decisions. But it will be interesting to see if the Twins do sign some arms for the bullpen in 2015 and who goes elsewhere.

I don't expect Boyer to be back just to pitch at Rochester, but have to see what demand there is for his services. I mean, Aaron Thompson came back!

Fien is not blocking anyone.  Either he performs like he did the first half of last year prior to getting hurt when he was lights out, or he's not great in which case the only way he's not replaced by Burdi, Reed, Meyer, etc. is because they're also  not great.  Fien has potential value beyond being a place holder.  He's a veteran, he's an emotional leader on the team, and I'd trust him in a big spot way more than any of the rookies we might call up.  

I sure regret having Santana, Hughes, and Pelfrey blocking Meyer and May last year, and having Escobar blocking Santana and Hunter blocking Arcia.  Having too much talent on the roster isn't a problem.  It's a lot easier to call down to the farm if a vet gets hurt or doesn't perform than to go get a vet if a rookie or soph doesn't perform.

 And then you have Fien, who I fear could be Burton 2.0. Fien had good trade value in 2015, but didn't go anywhere. He was solid, but also unspectuacular at times, in 2015 -- and no one was calling his name in 2015. For all intent and purpose, Jepsen replaced him in the bullpen forthe next season.

 

We need a special section on the forum for this mythical 'he had good trade value at XX point'.  Fien is exactly who he always was.  He is a fine but not great (or even very good) RP'er.  He wasn't going to bring back a prospect as good as Hu (Jepsen trade).  Whatever prospect he was traded for would have had minimal value to the org.

I wouldn't bring him back myself and instead have a Perkins, Jepsen and 7th inning guy with guys like Pressly and Graham as the 4th and 5th options out of the bullpen allowing room for an extra starter like Milone or Nolasco as the long man or prospects like Tonkin, Meyer, Chargois, Burdi.  That 7th inning guy could be May (not my choice) or a FA/trade.

Casey Fien got tindered? Who did he hook up with?

Darren O'DAY just got 4 years and $31 million. I highly doubt we are getting a good reliever via free agency. And maybe guys like Fien are worth more than we think.