"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.