"Funny Money" Runs Wild In Baseball

Whoa, Nelly! Major League Baseball is totally out of control. 

Why do I say that? Well, the dreaded New York Yankees just ponied up $324 MILLION over 9 years for the pitching services of Gerrit Cole. This breaks the record of $245 million (seven years) paid by the Washington Nationals to retain pitcher Stephen Strasburg, the MVP of the World Series.

Let's see. That averages out to Cole making $36 million a year to Strasburg's $34 million a year. The REAL winner here is super-agent Scott Boras, who makes anywhere from four to 10 percent from brokering those deals.

It's sad to see the haves put that much money out for a single player, a total that, in the case of a couple franchises, equals nearly half of their TOTAL team salary.

Of course, teams like the Yankees and Nationals (along with, say, the Boston Red Sox, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals) can afford to sign players to sky-high contracts and weather the storm IF the player gets hurt and things never pan out.

Franchises like the Milwaukee Brewers and Kansas City Royals COULD pay out that much for a single player, but NEVER WILL -- because they have to look at the long-term consequences.

Which makes it even more imperative for MLB to have salary caps. Let's face it, wild spending by some teams could lead to MLB losing franchises.

Speaking of salary, I see that the Brewers re-signed relief pitcher Alex Claudio to a more team-friendly contact along with bullpen ace Corey Knebel -- who avoided arbitration with a one-year contract. Knebel, of course, is coming off Tommy John surgery and probably won't be throwing again until late in the season.

The Sky Isn't Falling in Milwaukee

For all those "Chicken Little" Milwaukee Brewer fans scurrying around screaming The Sky Is Falling! Might I suggest y'all just chill?

The Chicken Littles are upset because the Brewers failed to resign either catcher Yasmani Grandal or thirdbaseman Mike Moustakas to a free agent contract.

Those guys pretty much put on a ski-mask and the Chicago White Sox and Cincinnati Reds ponied up -- Grandal got $73 million for four years while Moose bagged $64 million for four years. Both will be 32 in 2020, but they were WAY overpaid. Just proves that there's one (foolish franchise) born every minute...

People, it's not like the Brewers will play with seven on the field each game instead of nine. General Manager David Stearns knows what he's doing and how to manage the payroll.

The club declined to offer contracts to infielder Travis Shaw, right-hander Jimmy Nelson, infielder Tyler Saladino, Eric Thames, plus relief pitchers Alex Claudio and Junior Guerra. I look for Shaw to resign (club was avoiding arbitration). As for the pitchers...well, Nelson is damaged goods and has never come back from that freak shoulder injury while Claudio and Guerra aren't worth the roster spots.

Stearns addressed the catcher position via trade with Seattle, getting a left-handed power hitter in Omar Narvaez. The club will have three years of control on the 27-year-old Narvaez. The one big drawback with Omar is defense -- he only threw out 18% of runners last season, and had a plethora of errors/passed balls behind the plate. But defense can be improved -- Grandal is example of that.

Milwaukee recently swung a trade with San Diego, shipping off pitcher Zach Davies, outfielder Trent Grisham and either the popular Player To Be Named Later or cash. All this for left-handed pitcher Eric Lauer and infielder Luis Urias. I think the Brewers had gotten as much out of Davies as was possible, and Urias may light a fire under the up-and-down Orlando Arcia. Love his defense, but his offense runs hot and cold. This is not the case for Urias. Good trade for Stearns.

Stearns must still look at the corner positions to fill -- doesn't look like there's much in the free agent market other than OLDER players, and those might fill the gap for a season, but long-term? Probably not. Still, the club might re-sign Shaw and Thames at bargain prices and still work to develop within the farm system.

Stay tuned....baseball's winter meetings are going on in sunny San Diego.