Buehrle signs with Marlins; Pujols with Angels
Sentimentality doesn't win championships.
From a pure dollars-to-relative-value standpoint, the White Sox did fine in allowing Mark Buehrle to sign a 4-year, $58 million deal yesterday afternoon with the Marlins. I think the contract is a bit exorbitant, and it wouldn't have made much sense for the Sox, even if they could find a way to fit in into their budget.
Obviously Buehrle is a good pitcher. In the last 11 years, Buehrle has racked up over 200 innings annually, posted ERAs below 4.00 eight times and registered a Fangraphs WAR of 3.4 or higher in every season but one. A workhorse like that has tremendous value, even if it doesn't make him the kind of ace many Sox fans believe him to be.
If Buehrle continues to produce the way he has, he'll probably be worth his deal. But he'll be be 33 years olf before he throws his first pitch as a Marlin. Now there is plenty of precedent for soft-tossing lefties who have low strikeout rates continuing to succeed well into their late 30s and beyond. Moving from the American League to the National will help, as will moving out of U.S. Cellular Field. Still it's likely there will be some decline, and Buehrle could finally have some bad luck with injuries. I'd have been willing to pay him $14.5 million per for two years, maybe three, or less money annually over four, but not what he got.
Four years and $58 million would make less sense for the Sox than it does for the spending-huge-to-win-now Marlins. They're rebuilding, and they'd be paying a ton of money for a guy who would only contribute to a contending team at the end of his deal, if at all.
Still, I understand why Sox fans are upset. Buehrle was an extremely popular player on the South Side. Considering he contributed to a championship and pitched a perfect game, among many other things, I always got the love for him. And I emphathize with the Sox fans who are outraged that Jake Peavy, Alex Rios and Adam Dunn are being paid in the neighborhood of what Buehrle's getting, yet the Sox couldn't find money for Buehrle.
It's a tough day for Sox fans, but they'll move on. Maybe they won't do so completely until the Sox are good again, and that may take a few years, but they will. Until then, I'd expect ticket sales at the Cell to suffer right along with them, and Buehrle's absence will be part of the reason why.
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Of bigger national significance was the rather stunning news this morning that Albert Pujols had signed a 10-year deal, reportedly worth between $250 and $260 million, with the Angels. I thought the most prized of the free agents was bound to stay with St. Louis after the Marlins essentially pulled out of the running for him yesterday. The Angels kind of came out of nowhere. Being willing to sign on for that much money with a full no-trade for a decade will do that, I guess.
It's almost the perfect result for a Cubs fan like myself. Pujols is not only out of the division, meaning he won't torture the Cubs several times a year and won't lead the Cardinals to greatness, but he's out of the National League entirely. I wanted some team to splurge on a contract that it will very likely regret 5 years from now, and I didn't want it to be the Cubs.
With Adam Wainwright coming back, the Cardinals are still a threat in the NL Central, but their offense goes from scary to very questionable now that they no longer have the greatest slugger of this generation in the middle of their lineup. I'm still much more worried about the future than about 2012 for the Cubs ... but isn't the NL Central extremely wide open all of the sudden? Would it really be that outlandish for the Cubs to compete in it if the Brewers also lose Prince Fielder ... and especially if the Cubs are the ones who add him?
Sorry, but it's tough not to think these thoughts. Back to your regularly scheduled rebuilding project, Theo Epstein ... but you may not want to wave the white flag on 2012 just yet.
