Reese Kaplan -- Baseball Paychecks Arrive For Fewer Years Than Expected

One of the things many of us have learned during this pandemic is how much we define our own self-worth through our performance at our jobs.  Everywhere you turn you see help wanted signs on nearly every business's premises, yet fewer and fewer people are prepared to return to life as it once was.  While for a great many of us it has imposed some hard and long thinking about switching careers, changing companies or even retiring altogether, the same situation often comes to ballplayers whether they want to accept it or not.

We've all become accustomed to the conventional athletic career in baseball that seems to range from the early 20s to the late 30s depending on health and ability.  On the front end, we often wonder why players are held back and not allowed to ascend to the Major League show.  On the back end we remember fondly what players did when they were in their prime, but the frays are starting to show in their overall abilities, yet they've grown accustomed to the much higher-than-average lifestyle they earned when they were indeed among the upper echelon of the game.  

There are rare folks like Julio Franco who seemed simply to defy the aging process.  When he became a member of the Mets he was already 47 years of age yet produced to the tune of a .273 batting average with 2 HRs and 26 RBIs in about 1/4 of the time as a regular player.  Performance like that is rare indeed.  You can count on one hand the number of baseball senior citizens who got better or at least remained viable with age.  You could make a case that Bartolo Colon is another one.  

Then there are players who excelled earlier in their careers but injuries curtailed their longevity in the game.  Mets fans, of course, know well what it's like to bring up an All Star like David Wright and have him hang it up when he likely would have played another five or more years.  For pitchers that end seems to come much more frequently as arm, elbow and shoulder injuries often do not allow the player to come back at the same level enjoyed in the past.

It is that earlier success that wreaks havoc with a player's ability to earn and his new employer's willingness to pay.  Take the St. Louis Cardinals, for example, who launched Albert Pujols' career just past the turn of the century when as a 21 year old he handily won the NL Rookie of the Year award by hitting .329 with 37 HRs and 130 RBIs in 2001.  He went on to earn some megabucks in his career, topping out at $30 million for his 2021 season for the Angels.  For what is likely his final year in the majors he has returned to the Cardinals at age 42 for a modest $2.5 million for the year 2022.  The batting average and power have dwindled with age, but a guy with 679 HRs, 2150 RBIs and a career .297 batting average should be making a reservation for Cooperstown five years after he retires.  

It's these kinds of career situations that make the current one for 29 year old Michael Conforto so hard to understand.  Yes, he was pretty awful in 2021, but then again so were most of the Mets hitters.  He has missed a lot of time due to injury during most of the seasons he's been in the majors.  Still, he's been a productive player when available, though that 2017 All Star appearance is hitting its five-year anniversary this season.  He needs to swallow hard and take a discounted deal to prove that 2021 was a fluke, much like Nelson Cruz did for a year in Baltimore which resulted in the next eight years easily eclipsing the $10 million per season mark.