BREAKING: 9 years of Cabrera?
posted in 2008 Spring Training |ESPN Deportes is reporting the Tigers and Miguel Cabrera have reached a preliminary agreement on an eight year, $153M deal.
The All-Star third baseman will undergo a physical on Monday to complete the deal, the source said. …
“Miguel just signed a big contract,” said the source. “The contract will be completed when Miguel takes a physical on Monday.”
Update with my thoughts: This would be wonderful news. Considering most analysts expected Cabrera to command 20M to 30M per season, this sounds like a pretty good deal from the Tigers point of view, and it guarantees the young slugger a lot of money without waiting two season to test the free agent market. In the past, a few columnists have put forth the idea the Tigers may be able to sign Cabrera to a five year deal for around $100m. That would mean about $10m for 2008 and 2009 and $20M for his next three years of free agency. That would mean he’d be in his prime and could pursue another $200M or so at that point. As is, this deal can keep Cabrera in Detroit through 2015 2016 and buys all of his prime seasons. (Not that he can’t have great seasons after 33, but it’s less likely.) It will be the richest deal in Tigers history when signed.
Signing Cabrera for almost an entire decade — along with the other longterm deals the Tigers have been making with their young players — shows the commitment of Mike Illitch to keeping the franchise among the elite in baseball for far into the future.
But of course, we still have to wait for this to become official.
Update 2: The ESPN article continues to say “through 2016″ so that’s what I’m going with, until we have word that it is actually 2015 like some think.
Also, Will Carroll has written about the move at the Baseball Prospectus Unfiltered blog and comes to the conclusion the deal is pretty good for both sides. PECOTA thinks Cabrera’s on-field value might be worth a bit less than he’ll be paid, but Carroll believes the discrepancy is reasonable.
Sphere It
In the words of Borat “GREAT SUCCESS!!”