For no particular reason, I’ve been thinking about large contracts, the $300-million type of contracts. I wrote just over three years ago about how ten-year deals turn out for the teams that hand them out, and the overall takeaway was, if you’re signing 31-year-olds for ten seasons, that’s not a great idea. If you’re signing 27-year-olds, it just might be. That Bryce Harper and Manny Machado have combined to average just under five wins per 650 plate appearances since inking their mega deals makes that even more apparent.
The contract we’re looking at today is a little different — it’s for nine guaranteed years, not ten, and was signed when the player was 29.