By Bob Smizik, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Lake Fong/Post-Gazette
Freddy Sanchez takes questions from the media after signing his new contract yesterday at PNC Park.
The Pirates took a step toward eliminating the public perception they are a cheap, bottom-line oriented team that either cannot or will not pay to keep its best players by signing Freddy Sanchez to a contract yesterday that could pay him almost $20 million, including $8 million in 2010.
The third year (2010) is significant because that is scheduled to be Sanchez's first year of free-agent eligibility. It's commendable when a team buys out the arbitration years of a player, as the Pirates did with Jason Bay. But that's smart business for both sides. By buying out a year of free agency with Sanchez, the club made a commitment to the future beyond the norm.
Of course, it's only one year and one player, but it's a step in the right direction.
Sanchez will receive $4.3 million this year, $6.1 million in 2009. That is close to what he would have made in arbitration if his play continued along the same level it was in 2006 and 2007.
The third year kicks in at the club's option or if Sanchez achieves certain performance levels.
The first two years give Sanchez a good deal of security and the Pirates cost certainty. If the option is exercised by either party it will mean Sanchez has continued to be a good hitter who is capable of driving in runs despite not hitting homers and a well above-average second baseman.
The going rate for such a player by 2010 would be $8 million, if not more.
This is a good deal for both sides.
So what does it mean?
First, some history. The Pirates have made peculiar financial moves in recent years but not since the memorable Aramis Ramirez trade to the Chicago Cubs in July of 2003, for which they received virtually nothing in return, have they failed to keep a player worth keeping. It's true they've unloaded some big contracts -- Brian Giles, Jason Kendall and Mark Redman come to mind, but all those were worth unloading. In the case of Giles, they also got Bay and Oliver Perez in exchange.
So although the public perception that the Pirates are super cheap is not necessarily wrong, the team really has not been in circumstances where is has had to pay the big money to players. It kept Jack Wilson, who otherwise would have been eligible for free agency after last season.
The true test for Pirates' ownership will come after the 2009 season when team's core is either eligible for free agency or moving into arbitration.
No one should take the Sanchez contract as any kind of sign the Pirates are committed to upping their payroll to $70 million and beyond. As stated, it's just one step with one player.
A positive side of this deal is that in Frank Coonelly, who was installed as team president in mid-September, the Pirates have someone overseeing the operation who will not allow any outrageously stupid deals to be made.
Under Coonelly, there won't be any Jeromy Burnitz or Joe Randa signings, two deals, by the way, which definitely did not show the Pirates to be cheap but rather to be extravagant with their money.
Too bad Coonelly wasn't hired six weeks earlier. He certainly would have squelched the July 31 trade made by former general manager Dave Littlefield that sent Rajai Davis to the San Francisco Giants for Matt Morris. The Pirates are scheduled to pay Morris $9.5 million this season and it will take $1 million more to buy out his 2009 option year.
The origins of that deal speak to the lack of judgment that prevailed on the team before Coonelly. It wasn't so much that Littlefield made the deal and agreed to pick up all of Morris' contract, which no other team would do, but that he was allowed to make such a move.
Just what was owner Bob Nutting thinking when he granted Littlefield, a man he would fire five weeks later, permission to make that trade? Nutting is not a baseball expert, but you don't have to be Bill James to know that Morris, who had a 7.94 earned run average in his eight most recent starts, was not worth $10 million or anything close to that.
Those kinds of trades won't happen with Coonelly and Neal Huntington, Littlefield's successor. The Pirates have in place a front office that understands the economics of the game.
That's a positive, especially considering the recent past, but not enough to turn the team into a winner.
And the same can be said for the Sanchez deal. It's a positive, but by itself not enough to turn the team into a winner.
Bob Smizik can be reached at bspg@comcast.net.
First published on February 6, 2008 at 12:00 am
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