Richard Herr - Signing Ces'

The Mets definitely need to sign Yoenis Cespedes. However, Sandy Alderson is stumbling over the length of the contract to tender the outfielder. He wants to offer about three years; Yoenis wants about five. This isn’t a unique problem. Players want the guarantee of a contract that stretches into a time when their performance begins to fade. A prime example is A-Rod’s contract. The Yanks had to pay him off for the (very expensive) last two years of his contract, when he could no longer perform on the field. He was only a designated hitter, and even in those limited duties, he was low to mediocre.

Those parenthetical words above are the problem: very expensive. I don’t understand why teams don’t structure long-term contracts to make them less onerous over their final years. It’s rumored that Yoenis is looking for something like a five-year contract for about $100 million. Some rumors say more, but we will be talking about the area of management’s initial offer. If it were $20 million a year, it might be a drag on the payroll in those last two years, the years that Sandy doesn’t want to offer. However, what if the contract was front-loaded and paid out the years in these amounts: First year, $30 million; second year, $25 million; third year, $20 million; fourth year, $15 million; fifth years, $10 million?

That’s five years, $100 million, but the last two years are at the relatively lower figures of $15 and $10 million. Those numbers would allow the Mets to ship a still-productive-but-gimpy Yoenis off to a designated-hitter team that would welcome his bat in the order. Even if he was totally unproductive, the $25 million payoff would be far less onerous than a full $40 million of a balanced contract.

Obviously the numbers on the contract could be fudged to make it competitive. For instance bumping the third year up to $25 million takes the overall contract up to $105 million, but there is still a relatively small amount at risk in the last two years of the contract. An opt-out could be offered for those last years of the contract if Yo and his agent feel he’ll be worth more at that time.

I’m surprised this kind of contract isn’t more wide-spread throughout baseball. It seems like most teams want to forget about the final years of a large contract, like putting a large charge on a credit card and worry about paying for it later.

Whenever Richard Herr isn’t anguishing about the play of the Mets, he spends his time writing humorous science fiction novels. You can see his books at

 https://www.amazon.com/Richard-Herr/e/B00J5XBKX4 

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