The Robinson Cano signing is reminiscent of the Alex Rodriguez scenario after he signed with Texas 13 years ago. Rodriguez, preparing to defect from Seattle as a free agent, had it all figured out. He had made a thorough study of the Rangers’ organization and was confident the Rangers would grow with him into better times, even a championship.
Three last-place finishes into his record $252 million contract, he was begging the Rangers to trade him where he would have a chance to win.
How long will it take Cano, who is defecting to Seattle from New York, to cry to Jay Z, his nouveau agent, “Get me out of here. I liked winning with the Yankees and I want to win again.”
For the answer to that question, we’ll have to wait, but I would bet it won’t be more than A-Rod’s three years.
And while we’re talking about free agents, who said the New York Mets wouldn’t pay the price to sign Curtis Granderson? Well, contrary to what might have been written here last week, the Mets have paid the price, $60 million for four years, and general manager Sandy Alderson will keep his fingers crossed, hoping that the centerfielder will overcome the injuries that wrecked his 2013 season and do for the Mets what he did for the crosstown Yankees the previous two seasons.
Granderson, however, is older – he’ll be 33 at the start of next season – and that age plus last season’s injuries could add up to danger for the Mets’ $60 million expenditure.
The Cano and Granderson signings were among a flurry of free-agent signings leading up to this week’s winter meetings. Baseball people and fans always look to the meetings to generate off-season excitement, but the past week’s activity served as more than an appetizer. In fact, barring a dazzling trade or two, the meetings might already have been eclipsed by the prelude.
We know, for example, that no bigger contract will emerge this week than the one slugger Cano and rapper Jay Z wrested from the Seattle Mariners.
Why, with Albert Pujols hobbling and flopping down the coast with the Angels after abandoning his cocoon of comfort in St. Louis, would the Mariners play sink or swim with Cano? Why, at the same time, with Pujols hobbling and flopping down the coast, after abandoning his cocoon of comfort in New York, would Cano play sink or swim with the Mariners?
Another relevant question: why have the clubs gone mad with money? Is it going out of style and has to be dispensed with as quickly as possible?
For years the owners fought in vain for a payroll cap (more commonly but incorrectly called a salary cap). Their foolish efforts forced the cancellation of the 1994 World Series. It was after that fiasco that they gave up their quest, made labor peace with the players, then sat back and began raking in the money.
Everyone has money now; you know that’s true when the Mariners commit to $240 million for Cano. They committed that money for 10 years, the same as the Angels did two years for Pujols.
For a while, those long-term contracts seemed to be going out of style. But when agents and players began to see money pouring in as industry revenue started to soar, the length of contracts crept upward.
Detroit gave Prince Fielder nine years a month after the Angels gave Pujols 10. Boston gave Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford seven years each, and later the Dodgers took on their contracts in a massive trade. The Dodgers gave Matt Kemp eight years without being a free agent. They signed Yasiel Puig, a Cuban defector, to a seven-year deal. Zack Greinke got six years from them. The Dodgers had new owners, and it was like they were giving out lollipops to kids.
Ten months before the Cano contract, the Mariners retained Felix Hernandez with a seven-year deal. The Yankees gave Jacoby Ellsbury seven years last week but had previously signed Mark Teixeira for eight for eight years and CC Sabathia for seven.
A memo on long-term contracts helped get the owners in trouble in the mid-1980s. Written by Lee MacPhail, the retiring head of the owners’ labor committee, at the request of Commissioner Peter Ueberroth, the memo cautioned owners not to sign players to long-term contracts.
The union used the memo as a prime piece of evidence in its case claiming that clubs acted in concert with other clubs and violated the collective bargaining agreement. There were three cases in all, and the players won them all.
Contracts of five or more years, though, do seem to work against the clubs. Pujol’s 10-year contract never got off the ground.
The first baseman had flourished in St. Louis, winning the National League most valuable player award three times and routinely hitting more than 30 home runs – more than 40 six times – and just as routinely driving in well over 100 runs. He batted better than .300 in all but his last year when he hit .299.
But in his first season with the Angels he batted .285 with 105 runs batted in and 30 home runs. A solid season but not a Pujols St. Louis season.
Last season he missed the last two months and batted .258 with 17 homers and 64 r.b.i.
Josh Hamilton didn’t have an Albert Pujols career in Texas, but he had several outstanding seasons, particularly 2010 when he was named American League most valuable player (.359, 32, 100). Two years later he slugged 43 homers and drove in 128 runs.
Then he left Texas and took $125 million to move to Anaheim for five years. His initial production was not impressive: .250, 21, 79. That was not a $25 million season.
A good explanation remains elusive for why Boston gave Carl Crawford $142 million for seven years three years ago. But the outfielder has demonstrated the double danger of such deals – injury and poor performance.
Crawford played one season’s worth of games in two years with the Red Sox before they traded him to the Dodgers in the teams’ massive trade in August 2012. The only thing he was consistent with in Boston from his Tampa Bay days was his strikeouts. He had 104 in his last season with the Rays and 104 in his first season with the Red Sox – in 94 fewer times at bat.
He managed to play in 116 games with the Dodgers last season and struck out 66 times in 116 games.
Look at Johan Santana, who at the time Minnesota traded him to the Mets (February 2008) was one of the best pitchers in baseball, if not the best pitcher. To secure his long-term services, the Mets gave the 29-year-old left-hander a six-year contract for $137.5 million.
He pitched the first no-hitter in Mets history, but he wound up with arm trouble and didn’t pitch in two of the last three years.
In the 2008-09 off-season, the Yankees signed free agents Teixeira, Sabathia and A.J. Burnett to contracts totaling $423.5 million. They traded Burnett after three mediocre-to-poor seasons, and Teixeira and Sabathia remain for their fifth seasons with the Yankees.
The pitcher was outstanding in his first four seasons, but at age 33 and with 2,564 innings in his left arm, he slowed down last season. His 175 strikeouts were his fewest since 2007, and he had a 14-13 record and a career-high 4.78 e.r.a.
If the large left-hander continues to slow down, will the Yankees have benefitted from his first four years to have gotten enough for their $161 million? It’s their money so they would have to answer the question, but they would probably say yes. That’s the way it is in these days of lengthy contracts.
Sabathia has missed few starts in five seasons. Teixeira, who will turn 34 next April, had missed few games until being out basically the entire last month of the 2012 season and played in only 15 games and batted 63 times last season.
As players with long-term contracts get older, this is the sort of thing that happens, and the team has to decide if it’s worth it. With a Teixeira or a Sabathia, a team with the Yankees’ money will usually take the risk and sign the player, knowing it’s likely that he could wind up missing significant time before his contract comes to an end.
In the early days of free agency, neither clubs nor players always knew how to proceed. Wayne Garland was a pitcher in the first class in 1976. He had pitched for Baltimore that year, finishing his third season in the majors with a 20-7 record and 2.67 e.r.a.
The Cleveland Indians signed Garland to a 10-year contract for what was then a whopping $2.3 million.
The right-hander had more arm and shoulder injuries than success. He struggled through five seasons with the Indians, who released him Jan. 29, 1982. The contract was guaranteed so the Indians paid him the rest of his money.
Now to the questions I raised at the beginning.
Why, with Albert Pujols hobbling and flopping down the coast with the Angels after abandoning his cocoon of comfort in St. Louis, would the Mariners play sink or swim with Cano?
The Mariners are tired of being nobodies, losing games and losing fans. They know Cano can’t carry them to the post-season by himself, but they feel his presence will bring credibility and possibly other free agents to Seattle.
Why, at the same time, with Pujols hobbling and flopping down the coast, after abandoning his cocoon of comfort in New York, would Cano play sink or swim with the Mariners?
One word, maybe two words. The first is money, the second ego.
Those reasons apply to Cano’s new agent, Jay Z, as well as to Cano.
The Yankees’ willingness to pay the second baseman $175 million or so wasn’t enough because it wouldn’t have even made Cano the second highest-paid player on the Yankees’ roster (Rodriguez #1, Teixeira #2).
Jay Z couldn’t have accepted that status. He is a new agent, and he stole Cano from Scott Boras, who is usually the client-stealing agent. Jay Z needed to make a splash, a big splash, and $175 million wasn’t going to do it.
POOR PRINCE NEEDS A NEW THRONE
When the Detroit Tigers signed Prince Fielder as a free agent, they gave him a nine-year contract for $214 million. It apparently wasn’t enough of an incentive for Fielder to produce the way a $214 million player should produce.
Commenting on his new uniform number, 84, at his introductory news conference in Arlington, Tex., Fielder said, “I just wanted a new number – a fresh start, a fresh number.”
Forget the number. Why does a man making $214 million need a fresh start?
In his first year with the Tigers, Fielder batted .313, hit 30 homers and drove in108 runs. He had .412 on-base and .528 slugging percentages. He struck out 84 times.
This past season, No. 2 with the Tigers, Fielder batted .279 with 25 homers and 106 r.b.i. His on-base percentage was .362 and his slugging .457. He struck out 117 times.
“Everybody was on me a little bit about my performance, rightfully so,” Fielder said. “I sucked. I didn’t have to be reminded of it. Hopefully, we can make some memories here.”
The Rangers can only hope they don’t have to trade the $214 million man to enable him to get yet another fresh start somewhere else.
WHEN A DECISION ISN’T FINAL
Some of the readers of this web site would make better reporters than a lot of reporters I know. One of the readers saw this item on CBSSports.com, knew from my coverage of the story that I would be interested and forwarded it to me. I appreciate assistance from all readers.
The web site quoted a court document from the California lawsuit in which the city of San Jose is suing Major League Baseball to block it from preventing the Oakland Athletics from moving to San Jose. The document appears to be from MLB’s lawyers.
“In fact,” the web site quoted the document, “MLB denied the Athletics’ relocation request on June 17, 2013, one day before this lawsuit was filed. On that date, Commissioner Selig formally notified the Athletics’ ownership that he was not satisfied with the club’s relocation proposal.”
That was news to me and most everyone else. Commissioner Bud Selig had never disclosed a decision or the fact that he had made one. Selig, in fact, repeatedly has said that his study committee is still studying the issue.
Selig had no comment on the report, but a person familiar with the lawsuit and the development referred to in the document said, “That was not a final decision. At that time there was nothing that could be approved for relocation. There was nothing at the time to approve or disapprove. That was not the final decision.”
The person said San Jose’s lawsuit had “pre-empted everything.” That’s just what Selig needs – another reason for delaying his decision. He supposedly has only 12 months left in office before he retires.
A spokesman for Lew Wolff, the A’s owner, who wants to move the team to San Jose, quoted Wolff as saying, “As this is a legal matter, I prefer no comment. Sorry. However, aside from the legal activity, I am continuing to follow the process that MLB has prescribed.”