Yanks Have 3 of the Worst Contracts in the Game?
by jscape2000 on Mar 3, 2009 6:49 AM EST
in New York Yankees Analysis
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PrintLooking only at active contracts, Tim Dierkes of MLB Trade Rumors came up with a list of the 45 worst.
There are several teams with 3 contracts listed, and that's how many the Yanks have:
It's too easy to say Jorge's deal is a bad one. He was the best catcher on the market when the Yanks needed a catcher. The Mets were prepared to open the vault and the Yanks had no other options. On any other team Jorge would be the franchise player and the clean-up hitter; you overpay those guys and hope for the best.
In a way, the Matsui pick is the one I agree with most. It's not as hard to find a left fielder as a catcher, so I can't justify the move with the Jorge logic. But when he was signed he had never missed a game, and $13M was reasonable to good even at the time for a player capable of .280/.390/.500. Guys get hurt, the money isn't obscene (see Giambi, Jason), and we don't have a clear picture of how much money Hideki brings in from Japan (tickets+sales). Hard to call the deal an albatross.
Obviously there's no point arguing over Kei Igawa from a monetary standpoint, but the Yanks have the most money and never have a decent draft pick, so they have to get creative. If the move hadn't looked like such an overreaction to the Bo-Sox getting Dice-K I suspect most people would look at it the way I do: the scout who recommended El Duque recommended Igawa, and it didn't work. But whether it's signing Jon Lieber for a year of rehab and a year of work, or it means importing talent, it's the only way the Yanks can restock.
Sure, some of these guys have underperformed (or Igawa-ed, as we call it in the jscape household), but none of these deals have the air of franchise changing a la Barry Zito. Is it just me, or does it seem like Dierkes felt that with Giambi and Pavano gone, some Yankee still had to make the list?
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Maybe I misread
Maybe I’m misreading, but I got the impression that the list is in alphabetical order by team, and those aren’t the three worst, so much as the last three listed.
To those who cheer Jon Rauch, we salute you.
Three worst?
Obviously if you are referring to these three being the Yankee’s three worst, I tend to agree. League wide, I disagree. But keeping it to the Yankees, it’s all relative. The Yankees throw money around like Obama, so contracts don’t really mean anything to them. Minus the knee issues, Matsui has been a solid, solid player. I recally when Posada’s deal was being floated around pretty much everyone on PA was complaining it was too long. Bottom line, we needed a catcher and he’s still top 5 in the game. As for Blower-san … what’s the point.
"Baseball is the background music of my life." -George Will
Yes
those are the Yankees three worst, not necessarily the 3 worst in baseball. Sorry if I was unclear.
"Have faith in the Yankees, my son. Think of the great DiMaggio."
I don’t think you can deny that Igawa was nothing but a mistake. I think just about everyone who had anything to do with that deal, possibly including Cashman himself, should be fired for that one. You are talking $46 million just tossed away.
Matsui’s is a pretty bad deal, but at the time he was a lot more consistent.
Everyone wanted to rip Jorge’s from the start, but this shoulder problem wasn’t a preexisting condition. It’s hard to blame them for keeping him from going to the Mets.
To the Yanks these aren't that bad.
You guys have so much money to play with, that losing a few million here and a few there isn’t going to really effect anything. The Igawa deal is horrid, but the others are fine. It clearly did not impede your ability to spend this off-season the way all the terrible deals on the Giants and Tigers have just suffocated them.
Wow you're data's wrong!!!!
Kei Igawa’s contract is 5 yrs/ $20M.
The other $26M was paid by the New York Yankees as the posting fee PAID TO HANSHIN TIGERS, not Kei Igawa.
And at the time, signing him to a salary hit of $4M/yr a year removed from having more strikeouts than DiceK Matsuzaka, I’d say that’s not too much of an investment. However, unless your last name is Steinbrenner, then you can complain about the $26M. But since it doesn’t go into Igawa’s pocket, it’s not on their payroll, and your 5 yrs/$46M is completely incorrect, and therefore, probably NOT one of the worst contarcts. It may be in hindsight, but when these contracts were signed, they weren’t bad at all.
Rushing to give Cano a contract where he has salaries of $9M and $10M in 2010 and 2011, respetively, on top of a ridiculous $14M club option in 2012, is bad. Chase Utley didn’t get a contract that quick! But that was completely overlooked because it’s “not a lot.” A contract is a contract. And relative to his peers, this is riiculous. This is one for a guy who played 2 years and had an unusually high BABIP. Should have went through arbitration. Wang is making $5.5M after winning 38 games in back to back years.
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