There's a lot of money being thrown around the baseball world, and the latest number has one
Felix Hernandez landing himself a real nice contract extension that will ultimately make him the richest pitcher in baseball.
I can't blame the guy for agreeing to a deal that will pay him more than $27MM per season when the extension kicks in... any one of us would say yes to that.
So with that, Tigers fans like myself are waiting for the same kind of extension: only it would likely be in the neighborhood of 5 years, $200MM for one
Justin Verlander, rather than 7 years, $175MM that is being reported (but not final just yet) for Felix.
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| Hit this, fools... (Photo: Leon Halip/Getty Images) |
Some lack of objectivity might fall out of my train of thought here, but it's my humble opinion that Verlander is in fact, the best pitcher in baseball. Outside of a rather forgettable 2008 season, JV has been amongst the league leaders in wins, strikeouts, and ERA... leading the American League in all 3 categories in his
Cy Young and MVP award winning season of 2011. That, along with his 2 career no-hitters, it's hard to argue that he's not the best. And realistically, he should be paid as such.
That's where this gets iffy. The Tigers payroll for 2013 - so far - is already over $145MM. $43.475MM of that is tied up with the current projected starting pitching, assuming that
Rick Porcello wins the job of the 5th starter.
Max Scherzer and
Doug Fister both got raises - and deservedly so - and with strong seasons, hopefully injury free, both figure to get more substantial raises in their next go-round with arbitration (Max has 1 year of arbitration left, Doug has 2). While Sanchez is locked up longer term, Verlander has this and next season left on his current deal, a deal that pays him over $20MM per season now.
Naturally, the difference in Hernandez's contract and Verlander's contract is rather glaring. And I'm sure JV knows that.
Justin has said that he would love to spend his entire career with the Tigers. Noble, plus I don't really believe that an owner such as Mike Ilitch would be willing to let the best pitcher he's ever had under his control just walk away during the 2014-2015 offseason. So the matter becomes how much will he make, and when will the deal get done. The bigger problem becomes the rest of the rotation. It's rather hard to fathom that the Tigers could manage a reasonably lower payroll while keeping this rather nice core of starters. And it's not just the pitchers:
Miguel Cabrera sees his contract expire after the 2015 season, and I'm going to assume that the majority of Tigers fans would rather see him finish his career with the club, as he could easily fit himself into a more probable DH role, especially after
Victor Martinez's contract runs dry. But ultimately, in a realistic world, there's going to be no way to keep the current batch of pitchers while keeping payroll from reaching $200MM.
So, essentially, it just comes down to... win the World Series with what you have now. And do it fast.
The progression seems simple: lost the pennant in 2011, lost the World Series in 2012. That means the Tigers win it all in 2013, right?
We're going to have to hope so. While it's
not my money that's being thrown around here, it's a bit worrisome that so many players are getting enormous contracts, and long-term ones, with no guarantees that success will be had. Case in point:
Alex Rodriguez. Sure, he's a poor example because of his link to performance enhancing drugs, but his giant contracts over the course of his career are laughable since they are of little worth if he's not producing because he is hurt or unproductive.
Albert Pujols' salary starting in 2014 will be $23MM and increase by $1MM each season thereafter, for a guy who's numbers are decreasing as each year passes (though for the next 2 seasons, he'll make less than
Vernon Wells, another example of a bad yet hilarious contract).
Zack Greinke will average $25.5MM per season starting in 2014. We're all pretty sure that Verlander is a better pitcher. He'll probably get paid accordingly. For me, the numbers are scary. Pretty sure though, that Ilitch is going to do what he does, spend what he spends. And we as fans will still watch. No matter what the price tag is.
