In response to last week’s column, which raised the question of collusion by clubs against free agents, a Las Vegas reader offered a different reason for the lack of free agent signings. Charlies Midgley wrote:
“I am astounded no one – writers, pundits, players, managers, executives – has mentioned the elephant in the room.
“That elephant is the collection of absolutely horrible and reckless contracts awarded to players over the age of 30….. since the steroid era.
“For 100 years player performance peaked at the age of 32 or 33, pitchers and hitters alike. Of course there were outliers, but they were the exception, not the norm.
“Along came steroids and muscleheads like Bonds were having career years much later in life.
This was never going to hold when baseball finally – and belatedly – decided enough was enough.
“The owners, however, never noticed performance would revert to the pre-steroid norm.
“Beneficiaries, who amazingly under-performed included:
- Prince Fielder
- Carl Crawford
- Matt Harrison
- Matt Kemp
- Matt Cain
- James Shields
- Ryan Howard
- Josh Hamilton
- Matt Garza
- Pablo Sandoval
- Alex Pujols
- Barry Zito
- Jason Bay
- Mo Vaughan
- AJ Burnett
- Jayson Werth
- Carlos Lee
- Kevin Brown
And my personal (past) favorite…. Vernon Wells.
“Don’t even get me started on Jeff Samardzija.
A guy who was 48 – 62 (actually 47-61) lifetime and the Giants said that was worth $90,000,000 for 5 years
“The list above are just the highlights.
“Almost everyone on that list has one thing in common:
“They were signed to incredibly long term agreements which would take the player into the historical wasteland of ages 35 to 38, and in some cases longer.
“What astounds me is how long it took for owners, GM’s, bean counters, and WAR gurus to realize chasing these guys is a loser’s game.
“3 years for Arrieta – OK, I can live with that.
“1 year for Moustakas – an excellent deal for both.
“6 years for Darvish? I will go out on a limb and say he will be the last guy over 30 to get 6 years.
And in his case, it’s even worse. The Cubs are paying for the Yu Darvish of 2013… 2014 if I’m being generous.
Would love to hear your thoughts on this, as I believe this is only a reset of pay versus performance after a bloated, cartoonish period of baseball.
Reader Midgley makes a good point about the possibility that clubs may be getting smarter and not signing players to long, really long-term contracts.
Of this year’s 167 free agents, only three signed contracts that guarantee them more than three years.
When Lee MacPhail retired as chairman of the owners’ labor relations committee in the mid-1980s, he sent a memo to the clubs cautioning them to stay away from long-terms contracts, saying their history showed they produced negative results.
The Cleveland Indians nevertheless offered Wayne Garland, one of the 24 members of the first free-agent class in 1976, a 10-year contract to pitch for them, and he accepted it without a twinge of guilt. Injuries, though, limited Garland to pitching for half of the contract and reinforced MacPhail’s point.
However, the MacPhail memo served a useful purpose for the players. It was Exhibit A in their winning three collusion cases against the owners.
No pitcher has a 10-year contract now. Position players with 10-year contracts are Albert Pujols (Angels) and Troy Tulowitzki (Blue Jays).
The longest contract signed this off-season was Eric Hosmer’s seven-year, $144 million with the Padres. Other contracts longer than three years are Yu Darvish’s six-year, $126 million (Cubs), Lorenzo Cain’s five-year, $80 million with the Brewers and J.D. Martinez’s five-year, $110 million with the Red Sox.
Although this group of free agents wasn’t the best ever and will be easily dwarfed by next year’s class, there were enough good players to attract more attention than they received. I don’t buy the excuse that because next year’s free agents will be better as a group that teams were saving their money for next year.