The Blue Jays signed Melky Cabrera to a two-year deal, a total of $16 million.
Cabrera, who played for the San Francisco Giants this past season, was named the All-Star MVP this past July—about one month before he was suspended 50 games for testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs. That suspension ended before the start of the NLCS, but the Giants chose not to activate him.
Note that before the PED use, Melky was only worth about $8 million in 2009. (I assume here he was using with the Royals.) I wonder if the Blue Jays contract requires Melky to use PEDs!
The Blue Jays must believe that a lot of Melky’s improvement was hard work, not just the drugs. Since his value the last two seasons was around $40 million, does that mean the Blue Jays figured out PEDs give a player a 150% improvement?
The two years really surprises me. Melky’s performance going forward is a big unknown. I could see one-year and an option. Given the Jays went with two years, I also wonder if there were plenty of bidders for Cabrera that drove up the price.
Wait, how do you know (or I should say, what makes you think) that 2009 was before Melky’s steroid use?
If you assume 2009 was before PED use and he was worth 8 million , then offering him 8 million per year in his peak hitting years seems prudent.
Comte says low dosage Steroid use is possible w/0 detection. Guys like Melky, Braun etc may get sloppy which allows them to get caught. If Melky is more careful he may be able to continue with PED’s w/0 getting caught and duplicate his 2012 production. If he does it’s a great deal for Toronto.
Of course, nobody knows if PED use is responsible for his breakout year. Yaz had a breakout year in 67 at age 28 following an offseason of strength conditioning. Maybe PED use gets too much credit for Melkys success.
I have always thought those players who risk health and suspension are motivated to do well and their success is due more to doing more offseason workouts as a result of their motivation than the steroids which may be more of a placebo effect. Not to say steroids do not enhance strength but you dont need big muscles to hit well.