Miguel Cabrera agrees to 8-year deal with Detroit

[splitterpfj]

Not quite 20 million per year, which I guess is about right. It's good to be in the Cabrera family tonight.

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3307289

[brewjihad]

Just beat me to it.

They bought out two years of arbitration; total deal is worth $153 million.

I imagine Prince won't be entering any discussions about long-term extensions now, unless he sees a number like that.

[twobrewers]

Considering he has had some weight problems in the past and will likely need to be moved off of 3B in the future...

 

Wow.

 

At least when he is fat he can still DH for them!

[kramnoj]

I'm somewhat surprised that he signed for less than $20 million/year. I figured he could get more than that. On the other hand, he has set himself and future generations up for life, and he will be a free agent again at 32. Pretty incredible.

[pogokat]

yeah, he's on an arod/hank aarron careeer path now...if you are gonna give out a contract like that, miggy is one of only about 5 guys you should really consider...he's a top five hitter in baseball and 24...this will be a steal ffor them the last few years..

[logan82]

yeah, he's on an arod/hank aarron careeer path now...if you are gonna give out a contract like that, miggy is one of only about 5 guys you should really consider...he's a top five hitter in baseball and 24...this will be a steal ffor them the last few years.

Unless he keeps putting on weight. The AL is a really good place for him.

[DrWood]

so exactly who are the brewers going to be able to keep?

[craigharmann]

Probably Miggy, Pujols, Howard, and Prince are about the only guys I would think about giving that big of a contract to. Young stud hitters who are on the verge of breaking out. I think it will be interesting over the next 10 or so years to see if, between those guys and ARod, someone breaks Aaron's, err.....Bonds's HR record.

[kramnoj]

I think the Brewers can keep anybody they want, if they focus on that player. How many people they can keep is an excellent question. The Brewers payroll is $82 mil this year, they aren't exactly poor. If anything, this helps the Brewers. It certainly doesn't raise the price of what a star player gets.

[jazzytrav]

They bought out two years of arbitration; total deal is worth $153 million.

That's a lot of cheeseburgers.

[logan82]

I think it is more a question of how much of their own money the Brewer's ownership wants to spend and how soon we can get a better TV contract. That is the big question. If they decide to be fiscally responsible, allegedly, it becomes a question of wether or not it is a good idea to sign Fielder when there is a good chance we can sign 2-3 players for the same amount of money. No matter what we spend on Fielder I hope that they don't sign him for more than 4 years plus a 5th option year.

[splitterpfj]

My guess is, if the team can keep one guy with a deal like this, they will keep Ryan Braun.

[tigersfanatic1]

They bought out two years of arbitration; total deal is worth $153 million.

That's a lot of cheeseburgers.

Cabrera lost 15-20 pounds over the offseason. He doesn't look fat anymore IMO.

[twobrewers]

True, he doesn't look as fat this year.

 

But he has a history of being somewhat lackadaisical with his work habits. Now that he has an 8 year contract - I am not so sure he will be as dedicated every off season.

[endaround]

Keep in mind this only a few million more a year than Carlos Lee. So even if Cabrera does end up getting moved like he probably should, its still not out of line.

[DrWood]

Carlos Lee had more years of service. If Cabrera was a FA, the contract wouldn't be out of line at all. This long of a contract, at this price, for a guy as young as Cabrera (along with Tulowitzki and others' contracts), means that there are going to be lots of disgruntled young stars if they don't get comparable contracts.

Effectively, it might mean that low-salary teams give up their stars a year or two earlier. That's not good.

[BrewCrewForever]

I have always liked Cabrera. Sure he has has some weight problems, but if he can channel that he will be fine. Just an awesome hitter who can do it all.

[kramnoj]

This long of a contract, at this price, for a guy as young as Cabrera

 

Do you prefer older players sign long contracts? I don't see how this is going to get us to the scenario you are seeing. For someone like Fielder with Boras as an agent, it seems likely that he isn't interested in a long term contract anyway, so this wouldn't have an impact. If you're talking about someone line Braun, it is in a team's interest to sign a player to a deal like this, to avoid rising arbitration costs. If you're talking about a player like Hardy, the team has a replacement for him in the system down the road, and if he raises a stink, he'll see himself traded or non-tendered when the time comes.

 

I guess it depends on where the team is. For the Orioles, they traded Bedard away 2 years from FA, but they didn't do it only because of money. They did it to get a younger player who will be a better fit for the next time the Orioles are competitive (whenever that may be).

[tigersfanatic1]

Carlos Lee had more years of service. If Cabrera was a FA, the contract wouldn't be out of line at all. This long of a contract, at this price, for a guy as young as Cabrera (along with Tulowitzki and others' contracts), means that there are going to be lots of disgruntled young stars if they don't get comparable contracts.

If I read the article correctly, the contract buys out one arb year (2009) and 7 free agent years. Cabrera is close to FA, so I don't think the situation compares to that of Tulowitzki.

 

If the Tigers were going to give out this big of a contract to any player, a young, elite hitter who still hasn't entered his prime is the exact type of player I would give the deal to. That's not to say I don't have reservations about the deal. Cabrera could be a fat DH in a few years, and I do have concerns about the rapidly expanding player payroll. But I do think Cabrera needed to be signed. The trade had no chance of being a good one in my mind if Cabrera was only a 2-year rental.

[kramnoj]

I do have concerns about the rapidly expanding player payroll.

 

One thing to keep in mind with this is that payrolls have not increased as much as team revenues have. Several years ago, payrolls were around 55% of team revenue, which is healthy. Payrolls are now around 45% of revenue. And when mediocre pitchers get $10 mil/year, there's nothing wrong with giving twice that much to an elite hitter.

[logan82]

kramnoj wrote:

Do you prefer older players sign long contracts?

I do actually. I see most free agent contracts as foolish so I have no problem with other teams wasting money on the open market. Why I don't like to see this type of contract given to a young player like this is that now our own young players will expect the same. This contract, unfortunately, makes sense. It also drives up the price of our young players. Signing Fielder seemed pretty tough before, now it looks impossible. The money per year wouldn't worry me to much in a 4 year or shorter chunk. The 8 years does. Of course Fielder would probably have asked for 6+ years anyway.

[brains and braun]

Some nice points kramnoj. I think that no matter how you slice it, this seems to be a good signing, much better than say the Lee signing. The only way this could really be bad is if his weight led to a chronic injury situation (like a knee) where he was either not on the field or not the same type of player. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the Tigers would be insured to some degree against the former.

[Crewin06]

That is good news just to keep Cabrera out of the NL and for the Prince Fielder Precedent.

To Bad I don't think Boras will be moved so easily.

Basically it looks like Cabrera gave up 1 year of arbitration for the long-term contract at 24. If he would have waited 2 years he could have got 30 million probably if he stayed healthy.

I like this deal all around. Hopefully Prince will wake up, dump Boras, and sign a similar deal.