The Valuable Albatross?
The New Face of the Franchise (Flickr/shgmom56)
As CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman first reported yesterday the St. Louis Cardinals have signed C Yadier Molina to a 5 year contract extension with a mutual option for a 6th year. The value of this contract is the most notable aspect of the deal, it’s base value is $75 Million with an additional $15 Million for the option year.
The numbers themselves are not exactly striking, but the player who is receiving them is. I don’t want to disparage Yadier Molina in any way, he has won 2 World Series titles with the Cards, has made the All Star team each of the last 3 seasons, and was a Gold Glove winner each of the last 4 years, but is he really worth $15 Million a season? Even in a market where more and more teams are throwing money around, doing their best to emulate the ways of the Yankees and Red Sox, this seems like it could be an albatross waiting to happen.
Let’s first look at the raw data, courtesy of the phenomenal websites Baseball-Reference.com and Fangraphs.com. Molina has a career OPS of only .707, the average OPS for catchers since 2004 when he debuted is .714. So by that standard, Molina is slightly below league average. Over that time though he has a cumulative WAR of 19.0, which is 6th best among catchers. So there must be some value in other aspects of his game.
This brings me to my theory as to why the Cardinals were willing to pony up such a massive contract for a catcher who by offensive standards is average at best. Being a 4-time defending Gold Glove winner, Molina is widely regarded as one of the, if not the premier defensive catcher in the Major Leagues. But I believe his true value lies in the comfort level the pitchers for the Cardinals have with him, his leadership in the clubhouse, and his contributions to the city of St. Louis.
A very similar case occurred between the New York Yankees and Derek Jeter during the 2010/2011 offseason. An aging Jeter, who was very much beginning to look like a SS in his mid-30’s was making demands rumored to be in the $150 Million range at one point. Ultimately Jeter signed for the price the Yankees had initially offered, 3 years and $45 Million. While this was a huge concession by Jeter, it demonstrated that his value was much higher in the eyes of the Yankees than it would’ve been to any other team.
Had Jeter hit the open market I would speculate he would’ve been able to get perhaps a 2 year contract with a total value around $15-20 Million. The primary motive for a team to sign Jeter would have been for his name value and the marketing opportunities that would’ve accompanied his arrival in a new city, not so much what he could’ve contributed on the field.
So did we just see the Cardinals anoint Yadier Molina as their franchise’s Derek Jeter? Well, in a sense that is exactly what they did. The value of Yadier Molina to the Cardinals is higher than it would be anywhere else, just as the Yankees placed a higher value on Derek Jeter. Perhaps they wouldn’t have done a contract like this if Albert Pujols had stuck around. But maybe those millions of dollars were burning a hole in Bill DeWitt’s pocket after winning the 2011 World Series and Yadier Molina was simply in the right place at the right time. I can’t possibly imagine Molina will ever live up to those dollars, but with 2 rings already, he has enough good will in the Gateway City to avoid the dreaded albatross label.
Baseball Obsessed 