Using the Yankees as a financial benchmark is probably cheating a bit, but here I go anyway. The Bronxians reportedly signed the useful but not earthshaking lefty middle reliever Damaso Marte to a three year, $12 M contract. Let’s assume the report is correct and play this out a bit more.
You could discount the benchmark because it’s the Yankees, as they’re usually willing to overpay, but you could also tilt the bias in the other direction because Marte was not yet on the open market. In two weeks, as the free-agent offers arrived, he might have found his value up a couple notches.
Maybe these factors cancel each other out, maybe not, but I think it’s safe to say that veteran set-up guys will be pitching their tents in the same ballpark — $3 M to $5 M a year, two or three years.
Which brings me back to the Derek Lowe question: Do you spend roughly $10 M on two relievers who will throw, at best, 150 innings combined, or do you spend that money on one starter who will throw 150–200 innings, hopefully more, and give you a better-than-average chance to win every fifth game?
Which, in turn, brings us to the CC question: If you’re going to spend $10M-plus on an above-average starter, why not up the ante and spend $20M-plus on the best pitcher in the game? That’s an easy one: because Sabathia will command a 5–, 6–, even 7–year contract. Do I really need to spell out why paying $140 M over 7 years for a 300–lb. pitcher — hell, for any pitcher — is a bad idea?
* At the end of yesterday’s celebratory post I mentioned the elephant in the room, Lincecum’s contract status. Baggs riffed on that in a blog post last night.
* SMALL PRINT UPDATE: I’ve cleaned up the 40–man roster on the right and added 2009 salaries where available. Other than players under team control, the Giants are on the hook for $58.4 M, not including Barry Bonds’s deferred money, which is at least $5 M.
