Buyer Beware: The Danger Of The $100M Contract

This winter, second baseman Robinson Cano will likely join the elite club of MLB’ers to earn a contract exceeding $100 million. Cano has deserved the contract that he will receive–a career line of .309/.355/.504, with the ability to hit 30 home runs and drive in 120+ RBIs is definitely worthy of such recognition. Tack on two Gold Glove awards and an MVP trophy, and it’s clear why Cano is this year’s top free agent.

He obviously deserves the paycheck that he will get from whichever team antes up the most money, but a GM that wants to make that kind of investment in one player needs to know what he’s getting into. In my opinion, devoting that much money to Cano over what will likely be upwards of five or six years is too great of a risk to undertake.

Loyalty

On December 8, first baseman Albert Pujols left the St. Louis Cardinals — the team that Pujols had spent his first 11 seasons with — to join the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The Angels drew Pujols away from the Cardinals with a 10-year, $254 million contract, and enough money in incentives to sign a halfway decent player. Unfortunately, that is the way the sports business goes; players often leave their longtime teams for a massive contract in another city. My question: why?