Friday, January 16, 2015

Lower the Years, Increase the Money & Sign a Pitcher


As we all continue to wait on the Max Scherzer and James Shields sweepstakes to come to an end I had an epiphany, albeit probably not an original epiphany but an epiphany nonetheless, about how New York could sign one or both of these pitchers to truly “Get Greedy.” What if New York, like the title of the post says, lowered the amount of years and increased the AAV to land either one or both of these arms?

Let’s just throw some rough estimates out there and say the team offers Max Scherzer anywhere from a three to four year deal worth either $95 or $125 million. Scherzer would make his money and be the highest paid pitcher in baseball, AAV wise, while getting one more crack at free agency at the end of his prime. This is obviously a far cry from eight years and $200 million plus but that is still a hard amount of money to walk away from looking at his market.

James Shields is said to be asking for a deal in the four to five year range and in excess of $100 million but would he take a one year deal worth $26 million or a two year deal worth $50 million? Again, looking at this market and his reported preference to play for specific teams this may be enough to land Shields on a short term deal and give him one more opportunity to land a bigger contract at the end of his prime. Shields and his market may be suffering from his lackluster postseason performance and if he could lead New York back to the Promised Land that may increase his salary the next time around.


It’s unlikely that either of these deals happen but it’s no longer early in the offseason and time is ticking away. Scherzer and Shields may have to come off their demands and take, for lack of a better term, pillow contracts and go at it again in a few years when teams like the Dodgers and the Yankees have loads of money coming off their books. Or they could simply continue to sit around and wait for that phone to ring, their choice. 

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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)