The one crazy thing about Major League Baseball is how much teams are willing to pay certain players just to field a baseball and swing a bat. Yeah it can’t be the easiest thing to do since this league is stocked with so much talent, but throwing around $240 million or $300 million at someone for about eight to 10 years is ridiculous.
The price tags for guys these days are getting higher and higher and before you know it, they’ll be receiving keys to the city or handed businesses instead of a paycheck. Baseball players are almost like royalty depending on where they come from.
Especially those who are foreign to this country. Guys like Mariano Rivera, Sammy Sosa and etc, are gods among men back in their home countries. I’m sure Robinson Cano is up there as well, considering he’s one of the best all around players in the game today.
The Texas Rangers, New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners needed some help in certain positions and were willing to show the big money in order to get that help. That’s exactly what they did. Now if you have been living under a rock over the last couple of months, you wouldn’t know about these transactions.
We have the Seattle Mariners who lurked in the shadows as the New York Yankees sat on their hands, not thinking much of it. This allowed the Mariners to pull the trigger on the hottest free agent on the market for a 10 year, $240 million contract.
Ellsbury whose career year was back in 2011, is coming off a World Series winning year with the Boston Red Sox. He was a huge piece of that Boston outfield corps. but decided it was time to move on and will join Carlos Beltran in the Bronx.
The Yankees were able to pick him up for seven year, $153 million contract, which could be the last contract of his career.
And then you have the Texas Rangers. The Rangers lost Josh Hamilton to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim not too long ago and have decided to move on from Nelson Cruz. Cruz had his name involved in that BioGenesis Scandal but I’m not quite sure if that’s the reason why they decided to pick up someone else.
With the addition of Choo, his left handed bat will compliment Prince Fielder in their batting lineup. Choo was picked up on a seven year deal worth $130 million after he turned down a huge deal to play with the New York Yankees.
An interesting choice, but it should work out for Choo and the Texas Rangers in the long run.
This has been a crazy off-season so far, one of the most exciting off-seasons that I can remember. We still have to wait and see who will pick up Masahiro Tanaka and how much they’ll be giving him. He’s projected to at least pick up a deal worth around $100 million which would add him in the mix of a handful of guys who picked up that much money.
Is it Spring Training yet?
Which was the best signing out of all three and could Tanaka end up stealing the spotlight? Leave your opinions in the comment section below. Looking forward to reading them!