Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
May 15, 2008
Another Young Contract

The Brewers join the league of clubs locking up their young players long term, signing Ryan Braun to an eight-year contract.

The Milwaukee Brewers signed Rookie of the Year Ryan Braun to an eight-year, $45 million contract.

The contract includes this season and a seven-year extension, meaning Braun will not be eligible for free agency until after the 2015 season, general manager Doug Melvin announced Thursday.

At some point, there won't be any free agents or arbitration eligible players good enough to drive up prices. I starting to wonder if this will change the way the union looks at the current free agent structure. This has a real chance of actually driving down prices. If Ryan Braun is playing for $6 million a year, why should you give a free agent $20 million. Braun's a better player! It's only taken 30 years, but it appears the owners finally figured out how to use the system to their advantage.


Posted by David Pinto at 12:47 PM | Transactions | TrackBack (0)
Comments

You might give the free agent $20 because of supply and demand.

Also, if all of the young players are being extended any free agent will likely be in their mid-30's.

Posted by: Basura at May 15, 2008 01:26 PM

Braun's a fool

Posted by: Bandit at May 15, 2008 01:52 PM

It will probably take a generation to see how well this strategy plays out: locking good young talent to decent sized contracts versus paying for players who are too injured to continue playing. Presumably these teams have insurance on the players but I suspect it won't be for the full amount.

Posted by: rbj at May 15, 2008 02:57 PM

The other alternative will be future free agents saying, "Of course I'm worth $10 million in arbitration! Troy Tulowitski's making almost that much, and he's been rehabbing or on the DL for the last five years!"

Posted by: Phillybooster at May 15, 2008 03:21 PM

Cost certainty is a wonderful thing. I'd rather know I'm going to spend $45 Million than hope I don't have to go over $60 million in that timeframe.

Now Braun can get hurt all he wants and just put 2 solid years together in '14 and '15.

Posted by: Andrew at May 15, 2008 07:35 PM

Unless Braun turns into Ben Grieve, the Brewers got a sweetheart deal.

Posted by: geb4000 at May 15, 2008 07:40 PM

Bandit,

I think it's hard to call anyone who just got a contract for $42 million a fool. He is guaranteed enough money in his life to never work again even if he goes the way of Rocco Baldelli in a freak medical condition.

If he continues without a contract (and correct me if I'm wrong) he will pass 1 year of major league service with this season, and 2 years next season. Assuming he doesn't get seriously injured, he will probably qualify as a 'Super Two' after next season and get a multi-million payoff.

In the meantime, he'd only be making league minimum or whereabouts which would not be enough to support him (or close to it) for life. Even with his arbitration payouts, assuming he doesn't have anything go wrong, he will not be filthy rich. By taking this contract, he makes a lot of money and doesn't have to worry about freak accidents over the next 3-5 years to have a nest egg should something go wrong.

I think he's smart to take it. The younger the player is, I think the more reason they have to take the payoff.

Imagine if Baldelli had waited until Free Agency...

Posted by: Sal Paradise at May 15, 2008 10:32 PM

He locked himself in with a team that hasn't made the playoffs since forever and doesn't look like it will in the future for 8 years. If he puts up another .600 slugging year and comes back next year how much would he sign for? He probably left $40M on the table to sign with a loser and won't be free until he's over 30.

Posted by: Bandit at May 15, 2008 10:42 PM
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