Steven Matz signs with the Cardinals for four years and $44 million. That seems like a good deal to me, as the value of a single WAR remains depressed. I would expect him to produce about six WAR in four years, and I would think that a single WAR at this point would be worth about $10 million. Either I’m not discounting decline after age 30 enough, or there is more of a sliding scale to WAR. A player who is capable of five WAR a season gets a higher value per WAR because those players are rare.

Matz, however, had a lot of suitors:

The Mets had extended an offer to the 30-year-old Matz, who spent the first six seasons of his major league career with the club. Matz was said to be weighing offers from at least eight teams.

NYPost.com

With a large number of teams bidding on him, I would think that his price was set very well. It’s also showing that the free agent market is a bit more robust than in recent seasons, which should benefit the players.