Take for example the recent signing of Jon Garland. Despite declining stats over the past four seasons his annual salary has increased almost four fold.
Upon declining arbitration at the end of last season Garland passed on at least $12 million and later settled for a little over $6 million. Was the economy really to blame for this, or did owners successfully parlay a negative economic mindset to their benefit?
Is the housing market truly the reason why Andy Pettitte, who earned $16 million the last three years, will now play for only $5.5 million in 2010. Surely the Yankees aren’t hurting for cash. After all they just forked over $400 million for three guys this off-season.
And the failing banks are the reason Jason Varitek will be working for half his going rate in 2010, right? Varitek, who flirted with the Mendoza Line in 2008, declined arbitration and opted to test the waters of free agency during the off-season. However, realizing the lack of interest from other clubs, he pleaded for the Red Sox to bring him back. Varitek even claimed he declined arbitration because of unfamiliarity with the rules surrounding it, even though he is represented by “Super Agent” Scott Boras. Surely a “Super Agent” should know these things. In the end Boston extended a $5 million offer, refused to budge and even set a deadline for signing. Realizing it was the best offer available, Varitek caved and signed the smaller contract.
The above examples are only a small sampling for what is taking place all over baseball. Are bloated salaries simply taking a break until the economy recovers? Will the organizations realize they control the market and decide to slash salaries across the board from this point on? Will the Dodgers act on this and actually lower their offer for Manny Ramirez? Interesting times ahead indeed.
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MLB's Hot Stove Blog finally referred to what many of us were wondering- that the Dodgers are in 'payroll-reduction mode'. The immediate question is, why? Because you just can't buy adjoining houses on the Malibu coast AND big-name free agents in the same year? My contention is, this whole 'build from within' thing is great relating to Kemp/Loney/Martin/Ethier- but I believe we've already seen the best these players can offer. Sure there will be some improvement, most likely from Kemp, but to go forward entirely with these players and fill-in pieces is going to mean many mediocre years I'm afraid.
Obviously Kemp has the highest ceiling but how many more season's is it going to take? I believe his initial outburst (7 HR's right out the gate back in 2006) might have set our expectations a little high.
I don't think we've seen the best of Ethier, Kemp, Martin, Bills, Broxton or Loney. These guys are young and still outside of their prime years. The best is yet to come.
I think getting a taste of success last season but ultimately coming up short was a lesson to our younger guys. You gotta work harder than then next guy if you want to beat him. Lets hope Russel "J" Martin's new attitude rubs off on the other guys.
Just don't get fooled into thinking that this could be the next Rays- they were getting high draft picks for years and years. The Angels waited an enormous amount of time for their core group to put it together in '02, so long that Salmon could barely be apart of it. I agree that a trap that 'big-market' teams fall into, is doing everything for the short term, but there needs to be a balance. Someone joked on another site that all the Padres would need to do to contend in the NL West right now is sign Manny and Sheets. It's sad but true. When the Dodgers going to seperate themselves considerably from the NL West and start going deep into the playoffs every year? That's what we demand and expect.
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