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Jordan Zimmermann is coming off the worst full season of his career, but his $110 million deal with the Detroit Tigers proves a new reality is upon MLB. (via Jeff Passan)
When the teams ostensibly bleeding money find themselves empowered to throw around tens of millions like it’s no big deal, it is the greatest proof yet that the market has changed and a new reality is upon baseball. If it wasn’t evident in Toronto guaranteeing J.A. Happ and Marco Estrada $12 million and $13 million a year, respectively, the moment arrived Sunday, when the Detroit Tigers reportedly handed Jordan Zimmermann a five-year, $110 million deal.
Zimmermann, 29, has been a very good pitcher. Over the last five seasons, his adjusted ERA is 11th among starters with at least 700 innings. He is tied with Felix Hernandez, ahead of Max Scherzer and Jon Lester, who received a combined $365 million in free agency last year. At the same time, Zimmermann is coming off the worst full season of his career – and is more than half a decade separated from Tommy John surgery, which makes committing another half-decade that much riskier.
And yet here he is, a $22 million-a-year man, reminding us that neither $20 million-plus annual salaries nor nine-figure contracts mean quite what they used to. The going rate for a decent, healthy free agent starter is about what Happ and Estrada fetched, and anyone of Zimmermann’s ilk could well double it.
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/mlb-s-m...03586-mlb.html
When the teams ostensibly bleeding money find themselves empowered to throw around tens of millions like it’s no big deal, it is the greatest proof yet that the market has changed and a new reality is upon baseball. If it wasn’t evident in Toronto guaranteeing J.A. Happ and Marco Estrada $12 million and $13 million a year, respectively, the moment arrived Sunday, when the Detroit Tigers reportedly handed Jordan Zimmermann a five-year, $110 million deal.
Zimmermann, 29, has been a very good pitcher. Over the last five seasons, his adjusted ERA is 11th among starters with at least 700 innings. He is tied with Felix Hernandez, ahead of Max Scherzer and Jon Lester, who received a combined $365 million in free agency last year. At the same time, Zimmermann is coming off the worst full season of his career – and is more than half a decade separated from Tommy John surgery, which makes committing another half-decade that much riskier.
And yet here he is, a $22 million-a-year man, reminding us that neither $20 million-plus annual salaries nor nine-figure contracts mean quite what they used to. The going rate for a decent, healthy free agent starter is about what Happ and Estrada fetched, and anyone of Zimmermann’s ilk could well double it.
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/mlb-s-m...03586-mlb.html