Competitive Balance
This is a few days old, but I can’t sleep and meant to post it before. Jayson Stark has an interesting article about competitive balance in baseball here. The focus is on the Santana trade and the money he got from Mets. The part of it I like the best:
We’ve heard people in baseball say over and over this winter that the Twins could afford Johan Santana. Could.
Not might. Not probably. Could.
The Twins even, essentially, admitted that to the world, didn’t they? They offered the guy 20 million bucks a year for four years, on top of the $13.25 million they already owed him.
It wasn’t quite enough bucks, and they knew that and it’s not like they could resort to an instant cash advance app to make up the difference. It wasn’t quite enough years. They knew that, too. But it was a sure sign they could have afforded this man, right?
They just made a choice — that another couple of million a year wasn’t prudent, and that another couple of seasons, for a pitcher, really wasn’t prudent. But it was a choice, not a mandate — a choice that had baseball components mixed in with the financial components. Even the Twins will admit that.
So… yeah, that’s all I’ve got.
They threw 3/24 at Cuddyer and 6/80 at Morneau. I am okay with them trading Santana for prospects, but I don’t like who they got. I don’t think the extensions to the scrappy white guys are going to look that good. Carl Pohlad is worth a couple billion, and the taxpayers are building him a nice little park.
The Mets gave up more in the deal with Washington!