The Castle Rock Rapids have opted to Franchise Tag their star pitcher Ty Johnson whose is entering into the final tournament of his $21/3-tournament deal with the team.
Because the Rapids have elected to use the recently new rule, Ty will be automatically re-signed to a 1-tournament contract once his current contract is up after JAL XII.
The rules state that the salary amount for a franchise tag contract are: average JAL salary + 50%. So, after a little math Ty’s 1-tournament contract amount will be $5.81, which is actually $1.19 less than what he has been making for the last 3 tournaments. The rules also state that a franchise can only use the franchise tag once during the duration of the CBA. In other words, the Rapids can’t use it again on any player until the the current CBA expires on November 6, 2016.
Rapids owner Julie Johnson has always been afraid that Ty would leave the franchise when he became a free agent, so using the franchise tag on him doesn’t come as a huge surprise. However, it was unclear for a period of time if the Rapids would actually end up doing so because Ty is scheduled to undergo knee surgery in May. Since he will miss up to possibly 2 tournaments while he recovers, Julie took some time to contemplate whether or not it would be worth it. Why? Because even though he will be out, his salary would still count on the team’s salary cap.
Obviously Julie has decided keeping Ty for at least 1 more tournament is the best way to go despite the fact that after JAL XII the Rapids will be star-less and working with only $8.19 in cap space ($14 - $5.81) to fill their roster. When the time comes, If the franchise can find a way to do something special under those circumstances what a story it would be.
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