Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
March 01, 2007
Young for a Long Time

The Texas Rangers locked up Michael Young for the next six seasons:

The club and its All-Star shortstop agreed early Thursday morning to a five-year contract extension worth $80 million that will make Young the face of the organization. A source close to the negotiations said a verbal agreement had been reached and only finishing paperwork stood in the way of a formal announcement.

The contract will keep Young, 30, with the Rangers through 2013. The club will pick up its $5 million option for 2008, then guarantee five years at $16 million per season.

A very nice payday for the shortstop. The value of the deal really depends on how well Young ages. He'll be 30 this season (only a year younger than A-Rod), coming off the three best years of his career. As long as he keeps his OBA above .350, he'll be a valuable shortstop.

But what happens when his range starts to deteriorate? He's already middle of the pack. Maybe you move him to third, especially if Blalock continues to disappoint. Part of me likes the move, because it solidifies a position that's tough to fill for a number of years. But part of me thinks that's a lot of money for a player who might have peaked in 2005.

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Posted by David Pinto at 12:37 PM | Transactions | TrackBack (0)
Comments

I would have rather moved Kinsler back to SS - if I remember correctly, he only moved off SS because of Young - and looked for some free or near-free talent at 2B, usually among the easier positions to fill.

Posted by: TK at March 1, 2007 01:16 PM

TK...or move Young back to second base while having Kinsler move the other way as Young gets older. Second base was his original position anyway, and I think as he gets older, his defense might regress slower at second base than it would at short. There are more 30+ second sackers in the game still playing at or near their peak than 30+ shorts anyway.

Posted by: Yamen at March 1, 2007 01:29 PM

Moving Young back to 2B is an interesting idea but I still don't know that you want to commit the 5 yr/$80 million for that. I can't say for sure that 2B regress slower; look at the way Robby Alomar fell off a cliff after his age 33 season.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/a/alomaro01.shtml

Posted by: TK at March 1, 2007 02:05 PM

This is bad news for Tigers fans hoping to get Carlos Guillen extended for 3 to 4 years.

Posted by: billfer at March 1, 2007 03:03 PM

I don't mean to monopolize the comments but I'm only just noticing that Young will be 37 in the last year of this deal. Yikes.

I guess it's safe to say that the Rangers are paying a big premium for off-the-field, "face of the franchise" stuff. That's their prerogative, but it seems like a poor use of resources from a roster construction standpoint.

Posted by: TK at March 1, 2007 03:08 PM

The Rangers still rue the loss of Ivan Rodriquez and are not about to let Young get away. Some amazing talent has moved through Arlington over the years. Their problem is not getting value back for their losses.

Posted by: Caradoc at March 2, 2007 03:05 AM
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