5 posts tagged “free agency”

• The Yankees bringing back Andy Pettite. With a player option for 2008, this thing'll cost Steinbrenner a whole lotta calzones. $32 million worth, to be specific. When he wasn't injured, Pettite was a marginal pitcher the past two years in one of the weakest division in baseball. In the National League. Now he goes back to the AL East, one of the two most difficult divisions in baseball. They passed on Ted Lilly at 4 years for $40 million, and seem to be passing on ZIto for 6 or 7 years and $100 million, but now they're going to be on the hook for two 2 years and $32 million to Andy Pettite. A curious move, to put it kindly.

UPDATE: Hey look, I was right about something! For once. Pettite to the Yankees, and Bonds and Manny are staying put (the Manny situation is still fluid, but it doesn't look as though he's going anywhere for the time being). Herbie (Jason Schmidt) left the Misfit Toys to pitch in Chavez Ravine (I thought he'd head to Seattle), so I was wrong on that gut feeling. Whatever.

Seth Mnookin wrote a somewhat interesting/mildly entertaining piece for Slate yesterday bemoaning the outrageous spending thus far in MLB's hawt-stove action. There are admittedly many examples for Mnookin to hold up for ridicule and scorn, including the largesse bestowed upon Juan Pierre, Gary Matthews and, yes, Alfonso Soriano.

The only problem with all of this? It might have to do with the fact that visitors to Mnookin's Web site this morning would find him defending the ill-advised and bloated deals his beloved Red Sox handed out to J.D. Drew (5 years, $70 mil) and Julio Lugo (4 years, $36 mil).

I'm officially on record stating that, of all the bad or grossly overpriced deals doled out thus far, Drew's may go down as one of the - if not the - worst of them all (see below). I don't think he can handle the Fenway crowd and Red Sox Nation in general, and they're stuck with each other for the next five freaking years (at $14 mil per). And Lugo is a 31-year-old career .270 hitter that will now make $9 million for the next four years.

So which is it? If the free-agency spending is out of control this winter (and I agree that it is, almost unlike I've ever seen before), how can Mnookin defend the Red Sox deals (especially the one for Drew)?

• J.D. Drew signing with the Boston Red Sox. This won't go well, I'm telling you. And for five years, too? Yikes.
  

• Zito ends up with the Mets. Six-year deal.

• Jason Schmidt ends up with the Mariners (although he'd be smart to go to the NL)

• Bar-roid Bonds re-signs with the Giants

• Andy Pettite is back in Yankee pinstripes soon
  

• Man-Ram stays in Boston (I'm waffling on this one, but I think Epstein's going to stop wasting time, money and effort when he knows they're not going to get what they want in return

So, eight years and the GDP of a Central American banana republic is all it takes for the Cubs to snag the biggest name in a weak free agent pool, huh? What to think?

First, for the good: Spending like this is completely foreign to a Cubs fan, especially to bring in an outside free agent. It's unprecedented. As a Cubs fan, it certainly shows a commitment to winning right away, and they did without giving up any young talent via trade. As much as one player can, he makes an immense impact on the balance of power in the National League. The Cubs still have holes to be plugged (starting pitching, relief pitching, some left-handed hitting), but put Soriano in a lineup with D. Lee, Aramis Ramirez and Michael Barrett, and all of sudden it's rather formidable. Most importantly, signing Soriano shows Cubs fans the team actually is serious about at least trying to win right away. Cubs fans have always been (rather accurately) portrayed as blindly loyal to the point of mental retardation, rooting for a team that makes loads of cash off of them but won't spend any on talent. Now, for once, at least, they have.

OK, on to the bad: The deal itself. It's just too many years, and too much money. With a full no-trade clause to boot. Actually, the money per year isn't nearly as bad as the eight fucking years. He's 30 now, will be 31 before the season starts, meaning he'll be pushing 40 by the time this deal is done.

But here's the thing: If the Cubs win the World Series in the next 3-5 years, the remainder of the contract won't matter. It will have been worth to have finally brought to an end a century-plus of losing, agony and embarrassment. And make no mistake about it: If they do win it all in the next 3-5 years, or at any time during the length of Soriano's contract, he will have played a huge part in the success of the team. There's no way they'll be able to do it in spite of him.

That's where I stand on everything. Eight years was too many for the deal, but you know what? They could have made four or five middle-level moves like they did last offseason, and I don't think I'd be as excited about the upcoming season as I am after this one move. It so un-Cubs. I guess that's why it's so freaking energizing.

How it turns out, of course, is a different story. This guy better not flake out on us.