Which free agent would you spend alot of money on this offseason?

[Leitch]

The Rangers made no mistake in buying ARod.

The Rangers's mistakes were in their other moves and in their failure to eat those mistakes and replace them with lower/cost players.

Chan Ho Park anyone?

[nadecir]

What ever happened to Selig enforcing the debt to value rules on baseball teams? This rule in the basic agreement, and allows clubs to only take on so much debt in long term player contracts in relation to the team's value.

To put things a $30 million annual dollar player contract in perspective, according to Forbes only one team in major league baseball made more than $30 million in income last year. And that team was the Florida Marlins.

Every team in the majors, except for Florida, would have to take on debt just to pay ARod $30 million a year if they added $30 million to their payroll. To commit to $30 million for eight years or $240 million dollars is quite a financial obligation. If the fortunes of baseball take a bad turn, a contract like that could be disastrous for some teams.

Here is another interesting fact about a $240 million dollar contract. Based on Forbes' team valuations, 240 million dollars could buy a majority interest in all but five major league teams. So instead of committing $240 million or more to ARod, maybe teams should just hand over their ownership to ARod for the right to have him play there.

I wonder if the Orioles could actually add a 240 million dollar contract and stay within the debt to value rules in the basic agreement? Forbes says the Orioles are worth $395 million. 240 million dollars represents 61% of this value. According to Forbes, the Orioles do seem to carry some debt on the books.

My guess is only a few teams could actually take on a 240 million contract and stay within the MLB's debt to value standards for teams.

[geschinger]

Chan Ho Park anyone?

Chan Ho was a terrible signing but even if he had produced at a high level they were never going to win with one player eating up the % of payroll dollars that ARod was.

A question I have for anyone that might know... If ARod were to opt out of his contract are the Yankees precluded from offering him arbitration? Or will they get draft picks by letting him go elsewhere?

[davearm]

Absolutely. If the Yankees cannot work out an extension it is both his and the Yankees interest to work out a trade. I'm not sure if baseball has any rules prohibiting it but in football at least teams have given permission to agents to seek out a trade.

Its not in his best interest if/when he gets 30+ million a year.

That's just wrong.

There's $30M in free money out there so long as ARod's current contract remains in force.

It's in everybody's best interest to keep that contract in place (except the Rangers of course).

Say a team like the Angels trades for and then extends ARod. They'll be paying him ~$50M for the last three years of his existing contract (the other $30M being paid by the Rangers). Now that allows them to offer him a 5 year, $160M extension. So over 8 years, the Angels pay out $210M, but ARod pockets $240M (hitting the $30M/year magic number).

Contrast that with the scenario if ARod opts out. Now he either a) gets the Angels to up their total outlay from $210M to $240M, or b) plays for less than $30M/yr (average), or c) gets $30M/yr for 7 years instead of 8.

The bottom line is that no matter where ARod and Boras draw their line in the sand in years and $$$s, and no matter where he winds up, everybody wins if the Rangers pick up $30M of the tab.