Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Lowered Expectations

Buster notes that some of the remaining free agents will have to lower their expectations if they want a contract this year, including former Yankee Bobby Abreu.

As recently as a week ago, the asking price on Bobby Abreu was said to be locked in place, a three-year deal for something in the neighborhood of $16 million a year. But those numbers were based on appraisals made before the motor companies got a bailout, before the Dow Jones Industrial Average shrunk to four digits.

In the past few days, Abreu -- like so many other veteran players -- has come to grips with the reality that the lush multiyear deal simply is not going to be there for him, and the All-Star who hit 20 homers and accumulated an on-base percentage of .371
this past season is said to be willing to take a one-year deal.
Sorta makes Cashman's decision not to offer him arbitration look good, doesn't it? Of course, at that time, Abreu might have declined it anyways. At the time, I thought the decision not to at least offer arbitration (and get the draft pick if he declined) was a mistake as I totally underestimated the way the market for a guy like Abreu would crater. I'm not alone.

Arbitration would have landed him that $16m he wanted. Signing him now might also get him that $16m, but it would take two years to earn it rather than one.

Bonus points for any MAD TV fans out there who appreciate the 2nd picture to the right

2 comments:

The Common Man said...

MadTV has fans? Who knew?

Do you suppose that Ibanez benefitted by dropping his price first, as he's found one of the few big spenders willing to spend big money on a corner bat? Can/will Abreu and Dunn get something similar, or will they have to go down further?

Zach Sanders said...

Is it sad that everytime I hear the words "Lowered Expectations", I think of that show?