February 28, 2006
Win for Winn
Randy Winn is going to make about twice as much money over the next three seasons as he's made during his major league career:
Winn, acquired before last season's trading deadline from Seattle, batted .359 with 14 home runs after joining the Giants last season. The 31-year-old is on the U.S. roster for the World Baseball Classic.
"He's a leadoff hitter with a lot of dimensions," general manager Brian Sabean said. "We signed him longterm because of the type of player he is. A center fielder with run-producing potential is a rarity. The fans warmed up to him. There's a lot to like about Randy Winn."
The switch-hitting Winn, slated to be the team's leadoff hitter and starting center fielder this season, will get a $3 million signing bonus and salaries of $4 million in 2007, $8 million in 2008 and $8.25 million in 2009, according to agent Craig Landis.
Winn performed well above his career averages last year, especially when he was traded to San Francisco. He'll play as a 32-year-old this season. Sabean continues to throw money after older players likely to decline. Given the salary structure in baseball right now, it's not an outrageous amount of money. What bothers me is that the Giants plan is to keep buying veterans, and we saw what that did to the orange team on the east coast over the last few years.
Posted by David Pinto at
09:39 PM
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Um, "he'll play as a 32-year-old this season?" As opposed to what? ;)
He won't be 32 until June. There are still people out there who are not familiar with seasonal age.
Randy Winn only drove in 26 runs with his 14 homers with the Giants. I can understand him getting a raise but not for 3 years. Winn is a good player but is he a $7 million a year player? Free agency has skewered the thinking of general managers to the point that when a team even thinks they may lose a player they throw a lot of money at them whether they are deserving or not. In the old days Winn may have gotten a raise but only for one year. Where is the incentive to perform well when a player knows he is going to make $7 million a year for the next 3 years?
I should be one of the biggest Randy Winn supporters since we're from the same college and were there for some of the same time. But I'm not. I seriously don't understand Sabean's infatuation with aging OFers. Maybe he thinks RW will play better in front of the home crowd.
To answer one of these questions, unfortunately, while 7 million dollars is a lot, a fortune to you and me, it's probably the going rate for a player of Winn's talents. Think about it - Reggie Sanders got 5 million from KC, and Winn is a match statistically for Sanders, except Reggie's several years older.
If you think salary-talent ratios are out of line in baseball though, you should check out the NBA. The Bulls are paying a guy 14 million dollars this season to not play (Tim Thomas is his name, and he is apparently awful) and the Knicks are paying a guy named Penny Hardaway 15 million dollars and he can't play either. And the NBA has a friggin' salary cap.
I'm not sure why the Giants are so short-sighted with these guys, though. Outfielders in their 30s tend to not get better.