Something strange has happened this offseason.
Players that could hit 30-plus home runs a season hitting the free agent market would have guaranteed them massive contracts in years past. Even if they hit just .240, the fact that they could hit a plethora of bombs and drive in 100 runs meant that many teams would duel for their services.
This offseason, Edwin Encarnacion signed a decent deal with the Cleveland Indians, for 3 years and $60 million. But the other two big bats on the market, Jose Bautista and Mark Trumbo, were almost left in the cold.
Both Bautista and Trumbo re-upped with the Blue Jays and Orioles, respectively, over the last week, but at not near the price guys like Albert Pujols and Alex Rodriguez got. Sure, Pujols and A-Rod were much better all-around players in their prime, but not by the margin it seems.
Pujols and A-Rod got contracts in excess of $250 million, while Trumbo got $11 million per season and Bautista $18.5 million for one more year in Toronto.
A guy like Greg Vaughn, for example, who never hit close to .300 in any season in his career, made $8 million in his last season in 2003, largely because he hit a bunch of home runs.
Trumbo has also never hit close to .300, but he did hit 47 homers and drove in 108 runs last year. It seems like teams would want that kind of production in the lineup.
So what happened to the market? Are teams beginning to not value the home run ball as much as they used to? Or are they trying to spend their money more wisely on more well-rounded players.
Or am I just overanalyzing things?
What do you think?
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