Players typically peak at about 27 years of age. They are already past peak at the age of 30. A 10 year contract that takes a player to age 37 is just insane.
It's very possible that 2018 is Mookie's career year. I'm not saying he won't continue to be an MVP candidate for several more years, but he may not hit 10.4 WAR again.
I will ask again, how are the Red Sox benefiting from the contract proposal Jacko gave?
In that proposal, the Sox will be paying Mookie more in his final 2 arb years than they would going year by year. Additionally, they are still giving him a free agent contract of $35 mil a year for 10 years. Is that supposed to be a bargain?
If they're going to offer that, why not just wait until he's a free agent and offer him the 10 yr/ $350 mil contract then?
1. I think it's the first time DGalehouse and I have agreed on anything.
2. The Sox would be crazy to offer that deal and Mookie would be stupid not to accept.
3. Trading Betts next offseason is really not a bad idea.
4. The money saved from not signing Mookie to the mega contract could be put to very good use elsewhere.
I'd like to have Betts from ages 38-40 as well- not at $35M, of course, but I think he'll still be a plus player those ages.
I'd think about offering him an extension right now of $400M/15. The extra money helps Betts: the extra years brings down the AVV.
My offer would be 8 years for 255 million. If the answer is "no" then I wait till the end of arbitration, and make one more sensible offer. If the answer is "no" then we sign one or two top free agents with all that cash and continue our success story without him. (Mookie is terrific in many ways but I doubt his durability--could be wrong about it, but I can't see him power hitting or DH-ing in old age as in Ted Williams and David Ortiz)
Last edited by fxkatt; 12-30-2018 at 08:57 PM.
Some fans have a rotisserie league outlook. They want to prove they can beat you while spending the same as you do. This is commendable. But MLB is not like that. It is not fantasy, it is reality. It is big business. When the top players become free agents , there are only a handful of teams that are in the running for them. If you are not one of them , you will have a tough time getting to the top and staying there. That's just how it is.
Well, I'm not into Rotisserie. What I'm thinking is that Harper and Machado, like so many many big free agent sluggers before them, are most certainly going to be overpaid--and overpaying is always a disadvantage even to NY, LA, and Boston. We just did this stupid thing 4-5 years ago and got almost nothing but headaches in return for our lavish bucks. The examples are almost as long as the number of long, stupendously expensive, contracts.