Meche retires, KC saves $12M on reliever

[McNulty]

I would make the Royals donate that 12 mil to charity. It would feel wrong to take it (like Meche says), but I'd rather give it to a good cause than put it back in an owners pocket. Especially David Glass.

[sakata_catching]

IIRC, Matt Morris walked away from @ $10M when he retired in 2008.

Regardless, it's nice to hear about an athlete taking the high road rather than bleeding the team he could justifiably blame for ruining his career.

[lovetoaster]

Here's a great piece by Posnanski on Meche. Definitely a special guy...

http://joeposnanski.si.com/2011/01/18/the-retirement-of-meche/#more-6614

That's a fantastic article. Thanks Tony.

[RVAbird]

Here's a great piece by Posnanski on Meche. Definitely a special guy...

http://joeposnanski.si.com/2011/01/18/the-retirement-of-meche/#more-6614

As always, this was a great read from the Poz.

But, he actually sold his argument short. Unless I'm reading it incorrectly, he said that Fangraphs valued Meche at around 19 MM over 2007-2008, which is "almost precisely what the Royals actually paid him for those two years."

Well, Fangraphs did value Meche at about 19 MM...PER YEAR.

Over 2007-2008, Fangraphs has Meche worth a total of 40.7 MM. After Meche's retirement and the voiding of his 2011 contract, the Royals will have paid him about 42.6 MM. Meche nearly earned his entire pay just in those two years. In 2009, he was worth around 7 MM in FA dollars, which would have pushed him over the value of the first four years of the contract.

It didn't end well, but that contract has gotten years of undue criticism. The truth is that KC didn't pick the wrong guy, there's just always a ton of risk involved with long-term deals for pitchers. You might argue that signing an established, 28 year old pitcher who hasn't reached elite levels is actually better value than signing a pitcher who has. Both face the same possibility of catastrophe and one will come cheaper.