For years now, we’ve heard that the Cubs don’t want to pay a premium for past performance, a mantra that too often leads to the notion that signing a player who’s summited the age-30 hill is a bad idea. But what if looking at it that way is taking too narrow an approach? After all, not all age curves are the same and not all performance is either linear or parallel. Sure, there’s a general degradation of skill that comes with age, but not every player begins his descent from the same altitude.
As such, I was doing some really interesting reading this weekend regarding Alex Gordon and the idea that signing the 32-year-old left fielder to a $100+ million contract might actually be a bargain.