Prior to the advent of free agency, multi-year contracts were virtually non-existent in baseball. Once free agency became a reality in the 1970s, many teams sought to sign their key players long-term for fear of not being able to keep good teams together beyond a year or two.
As opposed to the NFL, where only signing bonuses are guaranteed and a multi-year deal can be voided after just a single season, baseball money is completely guaranteed, barring some kind of Sidney Ponson-type behavior. Sometimes there’s a season or two ? or more ? left on a contract when a player’s skills have declined to thepoint where trading him is next to impossible, creating an era in which players move from one team to another, with the former team actually paying most of his salary.
Pitcher Russ Ortiz, dumped by Arizona last year with nearly $22 million and two-and-a-half seasons left on his contract, landed briefly with the Orioles, but is now back with his original team, the Giants, in the same division as the Diamondbacks. Currently on the DL, Ortiz has already beaten Arizona once this year ? on their nickel. The Yankees are paying more than half of injured Orioles’ pitcher Jaret Wright’s 2007 salary.
Thanks to multi-year contracts, the Orioles? current 25-man roster features eight players who are signed through the 2009 season: position players Jay Gibbons, Ramon Hernandez, Aubrey Huff, Melvin Mora and Miguel Tejada; and relievers Danys Baez, Chad Bradford and Jamie Walker. If you add in the players whose service time keeps them tied to the franchise through ?09, the number jumps to 12, including Nick Markakis, and pitchers Erik Bedard, Daniel Cabrera, Adam Loewen and Chris Ray. (Second baseman Brian Roberts can be a free agent after 2008.) That’s roughly half the team.
Now, if you’re absolutely convinced that this group of players is the nucleus of a championship team, you can stop reading right here.
If, on the other hand, you’re thinking that maybe by 2009 some of these guys might be a little past their prime, join the club.
I don’t have any hard numbers to show you, but I suspect that most multi-year contracts end up with buyer’s remorse sometime prior to their expiration date. A veteran player and fan favorite approaches free agency, the local fans clamor for him to be retained, he gets a long-term deal and before the ink is dry those same fans are calling talk shows wondering what the GM was thinking.
It has burned the Orioles several times: Brady Anderson made $7 million to hit .202 in 2001 andleft-hander Scott McGregor made more than $2 million to go 2-10 with an ERA over seven runs a game in his final two seasons, 1987-88. There are more examples, but you get the picture.
You can chalk it up to just bad luck, or simply part of the game. No one ever offers to give money back. The Orioles and their fans certainly hope the dollars committed to the aforementioned players will be money well spent.
Check back in a couple of years. The results will speak for themselves.
Contact Phil Wood at [email protected].
