Good Day, Mets' fans.
I am sure most of you are aware that the prize of the 2019 free agent market has agreed to a contract with the Evil Empire across town. Yes, Gerrit Cole will become the ace of the Yankees pitching staff and his contract is rumored to be for NINE years and 324 million dollars!
Let that sink in for a second.
I am not sure how the money will be disbursed, but the annual average is 36 million dollars. A "normal" season's worth of starts for a front of the rotation pitcher is usually around 32 or 33 starts depending on health, etc. So, Gerrit Cole will be getting paid north of 1 million dollars per start for the duration of his contract.
Breaking this down further, if he averages seven innings per start, he will be getting paid roughly 158,590 dollars per inning. Or, if he averages approximately 110 pitchers per start, he will be getting paid 10,101 dollars per pitch!
I probably sound a bit like a jealous Mets' fan looking longingly across town at a franchise that doesn't mind spending money to put a winning product on the field. That is mostly correct, but I am also looking at the money flying around this offseason and asking how long can this financial irresponsibility keep going?
Say what you want about the smaller market teams, but I don't see a future for a lot of the teams on the fringes of Major League Baseball if this keeps going. The bottom five teams in 2019 regarding overall payroll figures were the White Sox, Marlins, Orioles, Pirates and Rays. The average team payroll amongst those five teams was basically 75.45 million dollars. Gerrit Cole will make just under HALF of what those five teams paid their entire rosters last year.
That is simply insane.
Gerrit Cole is a fantastic pitcher and if anyone in baseball deserved a monster contract, the 29 year old is the guy I would pick. He has been pretty durable since his debut with the Pirates in 2013, averaging over 27 starts per year. He has also produced an average of 3.23 WAR per year with the peripheral stats to support it. Plus, he has been even better since landing in Houston so he is trending in the right direction.
But....you have to wonder if he will be able to live up to his new contract which will cover his age 29 through age 37 years. Very few pitchers stay healthy during that window and most will start the inevitable athletic decline at some point during the same. I think the Yankees will be happy if they get five or six good years out of that deal and a championship or two, which isn't that far fetched with their roster.
On a side note, for as much crap as Brodie takes from our fan base (most of it is deserved), you have to give him props for getting Jake DeGrom's contract extension done last year. Jake signed a 5 year, 137.5 million dollar deal which averages 27.5 million dollars per season, or 8.5 million dollars per year less then Gerrit Cole's new deal.
I doubt that anyone looks at 27.5 million dollars as a bargain, but when you compare Jake's stats (5.81 WAR per year since 2014) to Gerrit Cole's, it is hard to come to any other conclusion.
Cole and Jake differ in that Jake was not due to become a free agent until, I believe, 4 years later at 33, I believe.
ReplyDeleteIf Jake was the same age as Cole when he would have become a free agent, his $$ would have been roughly the same.
The disparity shows you that baseball salary rules are grossly unfair to a guy like Jake. In that regard, I believe that all players should reach free agency at age 31 at the latest.
Of course, Jake will be wealthy the rest of his life anyway- just less so. And owners will be wealthier as a result.