OT- Tigers close to long term extension to Miguel Cabrera
Less than a week after being turned down by Max Scherzer the Tigers have set their attention to Miguel Cabrera, and it appears they're close to making Miggy a Tiger for life.
Miguel Cabrera and the tigers are closing in on a mega extension for the two-time mvp. story on http://t.co/RFVISfIo8t.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) March 27, 2014
Tigers, Miguel Cabrera close to an extension, source confirms @JonHeymanCBS report. The AAV of new years expected to be around $30MM.
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) March 27, 2014I'm gonna get in trouble for saying this, but that's too much.
Giving him a 10 year contract for $30 million for his 30's and early 40's will probably not work out.
Ya I tend to agree that 10 years is too long, but as others have said Miggy should age rather well, especially if they move him to full time DH around 35 or so.
Agree.
I bet he does age pretty well considering just how smart of a hitter he is.
The Tigers have been willing to spend though and as long as this deal doesn't end up wrecking their financial ability to make other deals, I'm fine with this.
willful fan ignorance... that is exactly what they said about A-rod 9 yrs ago...
but 9-10 yrs ago didn't people think the same of a-rod? I'd be shocked if that contract isn't considered a mess the last 3-4 yrs
March 27th, 2014 at 10:22 PM ^
March 29th, 2014 at 10:08 AM ^
How about a list of players in their late thirties who would have been worth this kind of money? Because the extension is getting you Miggy at 33 through 41.
cabrerra batted the last few months of last year completely with his upper body and was close to winning the tripple crown. he'll age gracefully,
i dont care if this is a bad business decision, for some guys you let the business suffer. it would be heartbreaking to see him play anywhere else.
congrats to big mig, especially for having the wisdom to realize its not worth squabbling over the second or third digitof the contract value when you're happy with your situation. (small jab at scherzer, but he's making a bad gamble. and he should talk to pujols, ben wallace, and the many other stars who left good places for more money and regretted it).
There is no doubt whatsoever that it is a good business decision.
It's a matter of whether it is a wise decision in terms of managing the baseball team.
That is quite a long contract. However, don't complain. As an Indians fan, I would love to have the problem of signing Miguel Cabrera to an extension that probably is a few years too long. The Indians were just in negotiations on an extension with Justin Masterson (who's now our ace after they cheaped out and didn't try to resign Ubaldo Jimenez). Not sure of the exact numbers, but Masterson submitted a proposal with a HUGE hometown discount, and the Indians declined. The freaking Dolans won't spend anything to constitute a winner, which is a shame considering we have one of the best managers in baseball. Tito squeezed 92 wins out of a team with the talent for 70-75, and we give him less to work with this year. Typical Cleveland
/end rant
March 29th, 2014 at 10:15 AM ^
Come talk to us in a few years. Miggy may be available at a very reasonable price. You have our number?
He may have earned it and be worth it but biggest problem imo is you have a couple guys with huge contracts like that on your team and it makes it harder to surround them with quality teammates.
Other thing I don't like is Tigers are more or less indistinguishable from the Red Sox and Yankees to me these days. Lifelong fan but hard for me to be very excited about them anymore.
Fire away.
I think it's too long. When the best you can hope for is, "Hopefully not as bad as Pujols or Howard," that's a problem.
We can hope that he will sustain his greatness for an unusually long time. There are some reasons to think he can do so. There are also a number of reasons to think that he will not, and that the contract will be an albatross within five years. It's not like Pujols wasn't also an unusually great, unusually multi-faceted hitter, and while there's no reason to think that last year's injury will recur, there's nothing to say that another won't take its place.
10 years is too long. No getting around it. There are, at least, a couple of mitigating factors:
1. Detroit is trying to win now. Not in ten years. If they win a championship, I don't care if Miggy is making $30 million in 2023 to hit .220 off the bench--it was worth it.
2. Miggy is currently a singularly great athlete in his sport. And keeping a guy like that in a non-destination city like Detroit is not a cinch. So, as long as he can be great for a few years, this is a needed deal.
3. Important: Dombrowski seems to be better than the average GM at working out issues like these. He somehow managed to turn the permanent albatross of Prince Fielder's contract into a serviceable second baseman--I have to think that, if he is still with the team, he can find a way to make the Tigers competitive in 2021 with a rapidly declining Miggy taking up too much payroll.
All that aside, it's too long. The track record of contracts given to players like this is almost entirely bad.
March 27th, 2014 at 10:29 PM ^
A David Ortiz career path is much more likely.
... but flags fly forever. As we all agree, if the Tigers win a World Series on his back, it will be much easier to watch Miggy's decline phase.
Albert Pujols' original seven-year/$100M (a big deal at the time) worked out quite well, as a counter-example.
Oh, and where I mentioned the Angels could pay Trout $25M and expect some improvement? They only had to pay $24M:
Deal of the Century: Angels delay Mike Trout's free agency with six-year extension
That's a real bargain. This is a premium player at a premium price for three years too long.
The problem is, a 10 year contract is the going rate for a top-flight free agent. A-Rod somehow managed to get two of those. Pujols got 10 years a couple years ago, I think, and Cano got one this past offseason.
Miggy's deal is reportedly an 8 year extension for $248, added to the last two years of his current contract, which has 2 years left at $22/per. That brings the total to 10 years, $292. You can pay $31 mil now, or dick around for two years and then pay $35/year when this contract expires, for 8 more years. Or blow a Wayne County-sized crater in the middle of your lineup.
a lot of tickets and a lot of jerseys. If he wants out of Detroit at any point down the road of this contract it will cost the buyer a lot. I love everything about this deal.
The best part is, the best hitter of our generation is going to be a Detroit Tiger for a long time.
And even if injuries start to catch up to him, he's still got the ability to hit the ball a very long way. It's not like losing any speed or fielding ability is going to hurt his game.
..... THIS is why DD dealt Prince.... Everyone was all "They traded Price so they could give Max an extension", blah-be-deblabbity-blah.... THIS is why they needed to unload Prince's contract... THANK YOU DD! YOU ARE THE MAN!! WoooooooooooooHooooooooooo!!!! Miggy will play alot of 1B, hit alot of HR's & doubles, hit for a 295 - 310 average, and will gradually transition into a DH his last 2-3 years. He'll end up going directly into the HOF on the 1st ballot AS A TIGER :):):):):):). Who cares if they're overpaying him as a DH in 2020? I won't.
It's too many years, it's too much money...and yet I'm thrilled about the extension. Knowing that he'll be around in Detroit for the rest of his career is a great feeling.
Now, it's time to buy a Hot and Ready pizza. Or maybe a few million of them.
Ten years is too long, but if he leads the Tigers to a World Series title, it'd be worth the inevitable decline in production in the back half of the deal.
Thats one of the first rational thoughts in this thread (and I don't consider people expecting him to bottom out as Edgar Martinez or Ortiz under the worst case scenario to be rational).
March 27th, 2014 at 10:25 PM ^
Let him walk?? Yea right.
He's the greatest hitter on the face of the planet and the best most people have ever seen...
He can single handedly win games.
You pay for talent like this...over pay, so what. There's no cap!
He's a tiger for life. Unless someone goes all Hershel walker on us 6-7 years from now.
March 27th, 2014 at 10:26 PM ^
AND HES A TIGER!
Okay, just so long as don't get carried away.
I haven't been this excited since we signed Prince Fielder.
... and people wonder why we're excited and apphrensive about this deal at the same time.
March 29th, 2014 at 10:05 AM ^
Yeah, half sarcastic on my part. After the Fielder experience we're at least having second thoughts on Miggy's deal. The current one would expire the offseason he turns 33. That's damn near perfect. We just made a A-Rod type investment in his post-prime years.
This is one I'd have let run up near the end. Everyone would realize they'd be getting a 33 year old and I don't think the asking price would be quite as high.
March 29th, 2014 at 10:36 AM ^
you'll be telling your grand children about watching cabrerra play. the contract probably wont be discussed.