Teixeira to Benefit From Inflation?
So, this is what baseball’s hot stove season looks like in the midst of what just about everyone is calling the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression:
- $161 million for seven years of CC Sabathia.
- $82.5 million for five years of AJ Burnett.
- Multiple $160 million, 8-year offers to Mark Teixeira, and rumors that the bidding could go as high as $175 or even $200 million.
And we haven’t even gotten to Manny Ramirez and Derek Lowe yet.
If baseball salaries are any guide, we should be less worried about credit default swaps and more concerned about inflation. The offers for Tex recall to mind the $160 million deal Boston gave Manny Ramirez in 2000, when he was 28 (the same age Tex is now). That was an 8 year deal with options that could bring it to 200 million and 10 years, a record deal for about two seconds until A-Rod signed that $252 million monster. Then, Manny had just come off a season in which he OBP’ed .457 and slugged .697. His OPS+ was 186.
Those numbers are crazy. Those numbers are eye-popping. Those numbers make me want to laugh, not a happy, trilling laugh, but a twisted, semi-hysterical laugh.
At the beginning of this decade, $160 million used to 8 years of a future Hall of Famer. Now it doesn’t even get you 8 years of a guy who’s just very, very good.
That’s not a knock on Tex. His OPS+ last year was a career-best 151. That’s excellent. But my eyeballs are still in their sockets.
December 17th, 2008 at 9:34 am
Not usually a spelling Nazi but it’s in the title, so “Teixeira”. :o
Also, I think inflation has been suppressed in 2008 because of the economy. When you consider the past deals, this year is the year for bargain hunting. :o
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December 17th, 2008 at 11:44 am
With all the times I’ve written “Teixeira” over the past two months, you would think that my fingers had it down by now. Thanks, Kensai.
Bargain-hunting…except for the Yankees, who overpay to outbid themselves. Douchebags. ;)
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December 17th, 2008 at 11:50 am
PS, did I mention I’m bitter?
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December 17th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
It’s okay, it’s the Red Sox/Yankees thing. :o
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December 17th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Imagine how living players like Bob Feller (max salary $45,000) and Sandy Koufax (max salary $125,000) must feel (source:Baseball Almanac). Of course, in Feller’s day a kid could duck into the stadium for less than a dollar.
On the other hand, considering what the Fed is doing, the joke might be on Teixeira
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