Talkin’ Baseball & Missiles

By Hank Silverberg

Spring is a few weeks away.  The annual return of the boys of summer to training camps in Florida and Arizona is a reminder that this is a new beginning for our national pastime. All 30 teams have a chance to play in October, though it can be argued that some teams have a much better chance from day one. 

It is of note that the biggest signing of this year’s free agent crop came after pre-season games had already begun. Depending on who you asked, it was the Philadelphia Phillies who were the big winners or losers in the free agent sweepstakes. 

The Phils have signed superstar Bryce Harper to a $330 million, 13-year contract to play in their outfield.  It keeps him in red pinstripes until he’s 39. Harper, who is now 26, hails from Las Vegas and the odds are that he will not play all 13 years, even with a no-trade and no-option clause in his contract. He will make less money for each season at the back end, but not much less.  Past players with such long contracts ended up on the disabled list or had career ending injuries.  

(Courtesy of Philadelphia Phillies)

The Harper contract is the biggest ever signed by a professional athlete in any professional sport in the United States. And it comes after infielder Manny Machado signed a $300 million 10-year contract to play third base for the San Diego Padres. 

The question is: Is either player worth it?

 Since baseball is a game of statistics and “analytics” are now the rave, let’s take a closer look at each player. 

In seven years with his former team, the Washington Nationals, the only team he has played for, Harper had a .279 career batting average (.211 in post season), 184 home runs (a high of 42 in 2015), 521 career RBI’s, 75 stolen bases and 922 hits in 3306 at-bats. Not bad, but not great either. 

He is an above-average defensive outfielder, but not a super one.  Then there’s his less than stellar attitude in the clubhouse and with the media. He complains a lot and got into a fight with a teammate in the dugout a few years ago.

(Courtesy of SD Padres) 

Machado, who also has an “attitude” problem (he is lackadaisical at times), has very similar statistics, including a .282 career batting average, 175 HRs, 513 RBI’s and a high of 37 HRs in both 2016 and 2018. He is a good infielder, but not great. 

So, it will be said, both are good ballplayers. If you look at previous, big long-term deals, Alex Rodriguez (Bronx team—I never use the “Y” word) and Albert Pujols (Angels), the deals didn’t look all that bad at the time. But remember how A-Rod ended his long contract, with a 50 game PED suspension and then a mediocre comeback. Pujols, despite some great seasons, wasn’t enough to bring that World Series back to Anaheim. There is also another long-term contract question. Do players lose their incentive to play at full speed once they know their salary is secured for most of their career, as long as they stay healthy?  

Phillies fans are still happy. My friend and former colleague, Mike Jakaitis, is a genuine Phillies “Phanatic.” He called it a “great signing” but he admits the Phillies’ season will depend not on Harper, but on starting pitching.  He also notes it leaves the team underneath the league-imposed luxury tax that could help bring perennial All-Star Mike Trout, to the team next year. Wishful thinking from a loyal fan, especially since reports surfaced that the Angels may offer Trout a $310 million dollar 10-year contract extension to stay put. 

As a Red Sox fan, I was thrilled last year when J.D. Martinez signed a 5-year $110 million contract and then played a major role in bringing another World Series Championship to Boston.  But I can note Pablo Sandoval, who also signed a five-year deal for $95 million, sat out much of his contract with injuries before the Sox could dump him. It’s been described as one of the worst deals in baseball history. He didn’t even play well when he wasn’t injured. 

The bottom line: we pay our sports stars too much. I can’t begrudge the players. They can get what they can get. But somewhere the line must be drawn on how much they get paid. That is particularly important if you are a fan of a small market team like the Baltimore Orioles or Kansas City Royals. The Orioles raised Machado, but they couldn’t afford to keep him. 

Baseball’s reason for creating the “luxury tax” to bring more  parity to acquiring players seems to have failed when you are talking $330 million dollar contracts.  

For Phillies fans, I hope my Red Sox see you in the World Series, but Bryce Harper’s big fat contract doesn’t guarantee Philadelphia a league pennant. The team from the Bronx has proven the big contract practice wrong many times.  Chemistry and the right mix of players counts more than superstars making big money over a long season or even several seasons.  

Oh. Yes, I did have a headline that included the word “Missiles”.

(Official White House photo) 

There was that summit in Hanoi between North Korean dictator 

Kim Jung Un and President Trump last week.  They were talking about “denuclearization,” a big word that means getting rid of nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula.  But the summit was a bust. Trump left early after walking out of the talks. Those negotiating skills he’s always bragging about didn’t work. With no set agenda, no negotiating before the meeting between real diplomats, and an ineffective overall foreign policy over the last two years, did you really expect an agreement? 

 It might have been better to send Harpers and Machado’s agent, Scott Boros, over to Vietnam. He might have come back with a really big deal.