TheMadHatTrick
Registered User
- Nov 2, 2008
- 6,766
- 2,840
All great teams will have to bite the bullet on some expensive contracts. Even the Leafs if you want to compare a potential Trout signing to Tavares. Tavares probably won't be worth $11 million when he's 33-34, he is however going to be worth the money for most of the contract.
If in 2 years Vlad establishes himself as Miggy/Pujols clone and the Jays are right there, getting Trout would be almost perfect. If you can't spend big money on the best baseball player bar none, who else are you going to spend it on? Trout might decline athletically in his 30's but his bat is prolific and should age well.
Catchers also break down the quickest out of any position on the field, comparing Martin to signing Trout at age 29 are 2 very different things. Trout is a McDavid, Lebron, once-in-a-generation/lifetime kind of player.
None of which alters my point. I agree you have to pay for years of decline. That's the cost of doing business, which is what I've been saying.
The difference between Martin and Trout as players is irrelevant, since that's not the point at issue. The point is the principle I just stated about signing players to such contracts, and the expectation of decline.
Trout is different, yes, but will also be paid significantly more in his years of decline than Martin was. In fact if his contract wasn't back-climbing for payroll purposes at the time, Martin's contract would only have averaged 16M per, while Trout's should average at least 30M.
We don't know how well his bat will age, but in the post-steroid era there are very few if any players worth 30M into their mid to late 30s (assuming Trout signs for 8-10 years), which is also right around the time Vlad will be due for his monster contract. This last point is irrelevant of course to the current discussion but worth keeping in mind.
This is all moot though, cause there's almost zero chance Trout is signing with us unless we pay over and above market value, which would also presumably make the dollar figure on his years of decline rise concomitantly.
Last edited: