While tabulating the winners and losers of the Josh Hamilton signing, Big League Stew reminds us of this:
There is no such thing as a bad contract
Vernon Wells: Nope, there’s still no room for him in the outfield. But he’s still going to be making Josh Hamilton money ($24.6 million) each of the next two seasons.
I was going to write something provocative here, like Vernon Wells’ deal isn’t even the worst contract on the Angels! and point out that Albert Pujols will make $30,000,000.00 in 2021, but I’m not sure that’s a bad contract, either. The Angels are one of the lucky teams whose broadcast rights expired near the peak of the bubble, and they’ll make $150 million a year for the next 20 years, not counting that sweet, sweet FOX and ESPN money. For teams like the Angels and Dodgers (whose TV deal is even better), is there such a thing as a bad contract?
A more interesting question is, what happens when the bubble pops? Will the gulf between large and small market teams turn into a chasm? Is a chasm wider than a gulf? What about a canyon? Those are pretty big, right?
Once again, I don’t have any answers, dear reader. But I suspect we haven’t solved the problem of competitive balance forever.
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