|
|
TEN MILLION DOLLARS DOWN THE DRAIN? by Jason Martinez sdpadrefan.com posted 5/14/08 When the Padres traded for Jim Edmonds this past offseason, they were essentially gambling $6 million (not a significant amount of money for a starting center fielder) and prospect David Freese for the chance that the 37 year-old center fielder would be able to stay healthy and bounce back to being a productive player once again. When they offered Michael Barrett arbitration in the offseason, they were taking a $3 million risk that Barrett could return to the player he was before last season's trade to the Padres. If he did return to form, $3 million would be a bargain. When the Padres signed Mark Prior for $1 million, they were making a fairly low-risk investment on a pitcher who was among the best in baseball when he was healthy. As isolated transactions, all three would apear to be low-risk acquisitions. Best-case scenario, Edmonds would be able to play solid defense, with a .270 average and 18 home runs. Barrett would catch at least 50% of the games and hit at least .280 with 10 home runs. Prior would be available by June and give the team 100 solid innings of work. When analyzing the three moves as a whole, we have another story. Especially because we are approaching 'worst-case scenario' territory with all three acquisitions. While the injured Barrett could return at some point this season, he's likely not going to earn his $3 million dollars, as far as Padre fans are concerned. Prior has not thrown in a minor league game and recently had a setback on his rehab. Who knows when he'll pitch again? And we all know what happened with Edmonds. What it all comes down to is ten million dollars in salary right down the drain. The Padres were supposedly outbid by the Cubs for Kosuke Fukudome by $8 million over four seasons. They were apparently outbid for the services of Milton Bradley by $1 million. They also couldn't come to terms with Mike Cameron, although no one is sure what happened in those negotiations since he ended up signing for less than what the Padres supposedly offered. Over the last few years, they have passed on players in the draft that they felt would command too much money. The difference usually isn't more than a few million dollars higher than what they end up paying the player that they do draft. So what would you rather do? Pay three million dollars for your backup catcher or spend an extra three million dollars to draft and sign a player like Stephen Drew, who they passed over in 2004 in favor of the less expensive and less talented shortstop Matt Bush, who signed for $3 million. Drew ended up signing a contract guaranteeing him $5.5 million and has been a big part of the D-Backs' rise to prominence in the National League over the last two seasons. I'm sure there's a lot more that goes into it, but for an outsider like myself, all I see is $10 million down the drain this season. |