TAMPA — In case anyone thought there would be a universal lesson learned by organizations about giving mega-long-term deals to sluggers in the wake of those for Albert Pujols and Alex Rodriguez going rancid, well, forget that.
Robinson Cano, age 31, received a 10-year, $240 million deal with the Mariners in the offseason and, three weeks before his 31st birthday, Miguel Cabrera was bestowed what in total will be a 10-year, $292 million pact from the Tigers.
Cabrera was owed $22 million in each of the next two seasons and on Thursday Detroit gave the game’s preeminent slugger an eight-year, $248 million extension in addition. The result is a $292 million package, which now outdoes A-Rod’s 10-year, $275 million deal for the most ever guaranteed a player. The $29.2 million average value is second to the $30.71 million of Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw off of the seven-year, $215 million pact he also signed this offseason.
It is symbolic of how well the industry is doing monetarily, but still left executives flabbergasted.
“It is the Pujols ridiculousness (10 years at $240 million with the Angels) on financial steroids,” an AL official said, “Who were they biding against?” An NL official added, “I am baffled.”
These have become standard operating responses in the aftermath of such deals, but particularly now with stricter drug testing leading to sluggers not flourishing through their 30s and into their 40s like they did in a recent generation. The complaint I heard most often from others about Cabrera is that Detroit had him under contract for two more years and could have waited at least one of those to better gauge the aging process for the two-time defending AL MVP. It is not like the Tigers would have had to outbid a wide field even if they let him get to free agency because many clubs either would have first base blocked and/or would not enter into this kind of contract with a slugger already in his thirties.
In the offseason — ironically, in part because they did not like how the slugger was aging — the Tigers traded Prince Fielder with seven years at $161 million left on his nine-year, $214 million pact. They wanted to clear as much long-term money with Cy Young winner Max Scherzer coming up for free agency after this season and Cabrera after the following campaign.
Scherzer turned down Detroit’s six-year, $144 million bid and the Tigers rejected his seven-year counter — and the sides agreed not to negotiate again until the offseason. So the Tigers essentially made this bet: They would rather pay Cabrera until he is 40 than Scherzer until he is 37.
They are investing in one of the great hitters ever. He has finished in the top five for MVP five years in a row and is a lifetime .321 hitter with a .967 OPS. However, they are looking to a near future in which they are paying just Cabrera and Justin Verlander roughly $60 million annually when both are beyond their primes. And then we will wonder if Cabrera joins the A-Rod/Pujols list for mega-deals gone wrong.