Throwdowns > Closed

williewilliejuan said 12/13, 01:46 PM
Since Albert Pujols signed with the Angels, people have been asking who will be the next $250 Million player. Ask no more.

The next $250 Million player will be Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers.

There are certain considerations that go into determining who will be the next player to sign such a huge contract. He has to be an elite player. He has to be young (I don't think there are many more 32 year olds who will get a contract this large). He has to get signed by a large market team or a team trying to make a splash.

Kershaw checks all of those boxes. He's 23 years old. He is coming off a Cy Young season. He plays in Los Angeles, one of the largest markets in the country. Perhaps most importantly, the Dodgers need to make a splash to win back its fan base.

It's no secret that the Dodgers have been in a tail spin lately, due in large part to issues with the ownership. Fans have stayed away in droves. The team is now up for sale and the new owners will have some work cut out for them in bringing back true baseball fans to Dodger Stadium.

Showing the fans they're serious about fielding a winning team by securing Kershaw will be a great first step in that process.

williewilliejuan said 12/14, 09:33 AM
I like Longoria, but there's no way he is going to be the next $250M player. I'm not sure where you got your contract data, but everything I can find says that Longoria's contract runs through 2013 with team options for 2014-2016.

Longoria signed his current contract in 2008 and it is deemed by many to be the most team-friendly contract in MLB. If the Rays exercise their options, Longoria will only be due a little over $40M for the next 5 years. By the time Longoria will be a free agent, he'll be 31 years old.

At the end of the 2010 season, in an interview with Marc Topkin of the St. Petersburg Times, Longoria said he would like to remain a Ray for the rest of his career and would welcome a contract extension. He told Topkin that he "would like a deal similar to the six-year, $119M extension Troy Tulowitzki recently signed with the Rockies." Even Longoria doesn't think he's going to get $250M.

By way of contrast, Kershaw is eligible for arbitration in 2012. The new ownership would have to buy him out of his remaining arbitration years to extend his contract. However, that would go a long way toward convincing fans to come back to Chavez Ravine to watch Dodger baseball.

williewilliejuan said 12/15, 09:36 AM
When I first saw this topic, my initial reaction was "no one". I couldn't think of a player who is young enough and talented enough to land a $250M deal. I then decided to look at it from another angle - which team is desperate enough that they would do something most teams wouldn't ordinarily do?

Under normal circumstances, you wouldn't expect a pitcher to get a contract this large. However, these are far from normal circumstances for the Dodgers. They need to make bold moves to energize and recapture the fan base that McCourt drove away.

The largest contract ever signed by a pitcher is CC's 8 yr, $182M deal. Kershaw could get a 9 yr deal starting at $25M/yr that increases 3% per yr for a total of $254M. It would admittedly be a large jump from CC's deal, but not outside the realm of possibility for a desperate team.

Kershaw would be getting the deal at a point when he is five years younger than CC was when he signed his. Kershaw is in much better physical condition. Most importantly, the Dodgers need to create excitement and draw fan interest much more than the Yankees.

The Dodgers' unique situation makes this deal plausible; there's no such situation for Longoria.