(Update on December 21st, 2022: As it turns out, the Carlos Correa signing with the Giants never went through so he is now with the Mets, signing a 12-year, 312 million dollar contract! Steve Cohen is now officially the next George Steinbrenner!)
This MLB offseason has possibly been the biggest, most insane and certainly most expensive offseason we have ever seen in this sport. Left and right, we are seen well-known baseball stars gets huge contracts consisting of seven to eight zeros and number of years on it that would take as long to finish as grade school. The stove continues to be smoking red hot at every turn and there’s still just two months to go before spring training rolls around. If you want to know exactly what I am talking about, here’s a little quick summary of the most expensive contracts that certain well-known players has received during this offseason so far.
- Aaron Judge- 9 years, 360 million dollars
- Carlos Correa- 13 years, 350 million dollars
- Trea Turner- 11 years, 300 million dollars
- Xander Bogaerts- 11 years, 280 million dollars
- Jacob deGrom- 5 years, 185 million dollars
- Brandon Nimmo- 8 years, 162 million dollars
- Edwin Diaz- 5 years, 102 million dollars
- Masataka Yoshida- 5 years, 90 million dollars
- Willson Contreras- 5 years, 87.5 million dollars
- Justin Verlander- 2 years, 86.6 million dollars
- Kodai Senga- 5 years, 75 million dollars
- Taijuan Walker- 4 years, 72 million dollars
There’s still a handful of key free agents to go such as Carlos Rodon, Dansby Swanson, J.D. Martinez, and Noah Syndergaard, all of which are projected to have a salary in similar range with at least a few of the ones I mentioned. I’m willing to bet Nolan Arenado is kicking himself for opting in too soon and not banking on his MVP-caliber 2022 campaign for a better, longer, and more dollar signs heavy contract. Regardless, superstars that hit the free agent market are getting paid big time. So much so that it’s starting to become too much of a good thing.
On one hand, it’s great to see certain billionaire owners such as Steve Cohen stepping in and spending as much as possible to try to give their teams a championship. As much as there are certain teams with owners that pride themselves as being “small market” teams, this offseason proves that’s a load of bollocks. Every owner of every team has the power, resources, and most of all, money to go out and get the best players they can. Every team can spend 180 to 220 million on their team per season if they wanted to but it’s only if they chose to do so.
The Mets, Padres, Phillies, Rangers, and Yankees chose to spend their cash because they want to win now. The Athletics, Reds, and Pirates chose not to spend and elected to tanking for years to come. However, with the contract signings as enormous as we have seen this offseason, one has to think if this will come with some sort of breaking point.
You might think the contracts of the likes of Trea Turner and Aaron Judge are nuts but those weren’t actually the biggest contracts offer to them. The Padres initially offered Trea Turner 11 years and 341 (!) million dollars, 41 million dollars more than the contract the top-tier shortstop actually signed with the Phillies. After missing out on Turner, the Padres went to Aaron Judge and countered him with an absolutely whopping 14 years and 400 (!!!) million dollars, which would have carried him until he was 44 years old. This was a contract so insane that there’s a chance it would have been vetoed by MLB if Judge chose to take it. It’s then that San Diego was finally able to blow their money-wide load onto Xander Bogaerts with 11 years and 280 million dollars. This was a strange move on the Padres part since they already have a shortstop with Tatis, which many assuming will be moved to outfield for the foreseeable future, and kinda felt like spending lots of money just for the sake of it. It’s good to spend big money in baseball but you have to do it responsibility, which I don’t think very many teams are this offseason.
You have the Mets that are paying the potential final years of future hall of famers Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander a combined 86.6 million this year in spite of them being in their 40s and have dealt with their fair share of injuries in recent years. You have the Phillies giving Trea Turner a contract until he’s 41 in spite of not-so-great recent outcomes with long-term contracts giving to players who are known for their speed (I.E. Carl Crawford, Jacoby Ellsbury) and paying a ridiculous amount for starting pitcher Taijuan Walker, which advanced stats claims he should have been pitching much worse than he has the last couple of years and his luck will certainly run out at some point. You have the Giants who decided to spend their Aaron Judge money on Carlos Correa just so they have some sort of all-star caliber player who can sell tickets and merchandise. You even have the Rangers who will likely being paying more for Jacob deGrom’s retirement plans than his on-field stats just as they did with Prince Fielder.
I don’t want to be the guy that wants to tell people the way they should spend their money in sports but most of these signings feel like the mindset of a ten-year old kid playing franchise mode on MLB The Show. Just giving out of contracts to certain players just because you can. It’s basically like the equivalent of an 18-year old with a $10,000 credit card, spending for the sake of spending without thinking how damaging it could be for the future. Sure, perhaps these players will live up to their contracts but if they don’t, then there’s a big chance that all of these teams’ farm system will be wrecked and needing long term rebuilds once their championships windows have fully closed. Just ask the Detroit Tigers who are still stuck in rebuild mode five years later!
At some point, I can’t help but feel MLB will have to stop this insanity by adding a salary cap to the league. Not only to avoid any potential legal and economic issues with the league but to add some much needed restraints for teams going mad with power and hunger with pursuing big names. Even if it’s not strictly a salary cap, there should be some sort of new policy that can help balance each teams payroll so that each one gets a fair chance of claiming any potential free agent on the market. Otherwise, we’re just gonna see the same teams over and over spend like they’re the president of the United States with little to no consequences aside from overpaying for their players in their last years after they have reached their peak.
Back in August, I wrote a piece about the potential need of a salary cap after the Juan Soto trade occurred because I fear it will only add to an never ending cycle of a handful of teams getting the only legit superstars while everyone else just doesn’t bother to get in their way. Now, I’m in the mindset that MLB might have to force itself to do it to avoid another offseason like this. Where players are getting paid massively for over a decade plus with contracts that will likely work out well for the first half but will leave many teams regretting for the second half of it. It may not matter to them as long as they win a World Series title or two but if they don’t, then they will likely wish they were giving some sort of salary cap or at least chose to spend more wisely.
If MLB choses to left teams spend however they much they want on players, then that is their choice. However, if the unthinkable happens to many teams that fall to reach their ultimate goals and the league has to pay for their mistakes, then no doubt to will lead to certain limits being made on how a team choses to spend. It’s then that we might look at this year’s offseason as the beginning of the end of baseball spending willy nilly without a care of the world. Only then that MLB might have to force itself to gain a salary cap just to keep everyone’s sanity in check by 2030. Somewhere Billy Beane is smiling right now!
Adam's Blog 