Here’s a scene from a baseball front office:
Owner: Prince Fielder was our last hope.
GM: No, there is another.
Yoenis Cespedes, the Cuban defector, established residency in the Dominican Republic and can now become a free agent. Detroit was one of the clubs interested in the slugger. He likely would have been a much cheaper option than Fielder, although having never played in the majors he also would have carried more risk. Why didn’t Detroit wait?
- They may not have been impressed with what they saw of Cespedes.
- The team needs to win now, with Justin Verlander and Miguel Cabrera in their primes.
- Another team was about to move on Fielder.
I tend to think it’s number two. However, if Detroit waited a few days, they might have been able to bring the price down on Prince by threatening to go with Cespedes.
I wonder if the Nationals will make a move for the Cuban? With Mike Morse under contract for two years, they have time to send Cespedes to the minors to see how he handles professional pitching. If he’s ready, they could bring him and Bryce Harper up at the same time to provide a giant boost to the Nationals’ offense.
The scuttlebutt here on Toledo sports radio is that Illitch is old and wants a championship in the next couple of years. He’ll probably be dead by year 9 of the contract and so doesn’t care about that.
They could have signed Carlos Pena for 10 million.
I wonder how much revenue sharing dollars they receive. Perhaps they had some pressure to spend, and being a playoff contender, spending a bit more makes sense to make sure they get to the playoffs. Revenues for 2012 probably jump after last year and they might want to sustain that.
Also, when V-Marts and Cabreras contracts are finished in 3-4 years, they have almost 35 million coming off the books. This year they have the insurance on V-Marts contract to help cover some of what Fielder gets.
Still, 9 years for a guy with Mo Vaughns body is nuts. Maybe they expect Prince to eat a lot of pizza and boost his other business.