January 09, 2005
Beltran a Met
The NY Times and others are reporting that the Mets and Beltran have reached a deal, seven years for $119 million. Another good job by Boras.
It also makes me wonder what Beltran would have done three years ago if the Royals had offered him a long term contract for half the money? I still don't understand why teams don't try to lock up young talent long term (5+ years) before they become eligible for arbitration. That way, you'll get their best years, you insulate yourself from salary inflation, and you don't have to waste time with arbitration hearings. And if the player bombs, you haven't lost that much money compared to what you lose signing a Mo Vaughn type. With all the players they've traded, the Royals would have been a pretty good team over the last few years if they had managed to keep their stars.
i totally agree. Why the Royals didn't use their revenue sharing money to lock up Beltran? Isn't that the reason behind the sharing so teams could afford to sign a star? David Glass should have learned by now that you can't run a sports franchise like you do a wal-mart.
How do we know Beltran would have even signed an extension with the Royals? Why would he?
Some teams used to do what you suggest on a regular basis, especially during the 80s--Cleveland with John Hart as GM and San Diego with Jack McKeon come to mind. But these days, no agent worth his salt--certainly not Scott Boras--is going to let a budding superstar sign a five-to-seven year contract in the third or fourth year of his career. The advice will always be to wait for free agency and the big payoff.
I don't agree Steven. There's always the risk that you'll be injured in the three years between arbitration and free agency. There will always be some players who want the security now vs. the huge reward later. Besides, if the contract is five or six years, the player is probably coming out of the contract when he looks really good (like Jason Giambi) so he'll do well in free agency anyway, but really be on the decline. The Indians couldn't get Albert Belle to sign long term, but everyone else they signed made out pretty well, if I remember.
Rey Sanchez wasn't well served by Boras, nor was
Kevin Millwood, and others. I was involved in a
negotiable commodity for many years, & have ob-
served baseball for a few. There are other good
agents who get excellent deals for their player/
clients, perhaps in part because they don't carry a
neon sign saying I'll bleed the last drop of blood out
of you. Even the big A-Rod deal made all parties
concerned very unhappy for a few years (except
for Borus). I'm happy for everyone involved that
Mr. Beltran is going to the Mets. (Hopefully, the fact
that they were his third choice won't become an
issue).
