The Cubs give Alfonso Soriano the worst contract in baseball history

by Adam J. Morris on Nov 19, 2006 2:38 PM CST in News Comment 38 comments

The Chicago Cubs have reportedly agreed to an 8 year, $136 million deal with Alfonso Soriano.

That would be $17 million per year for 8 years for a guy who has never had a season in his career where he was a $17 million player, a guy who doesn't walk, who doesn't have any defensive value, and whose game is predicated on hitting home runs and stealing bases.

This contract is ludicrous. I predicted a while back that Soriano would be a bench player by around 2009 or 2010, and I would only change that now to say that he'll be a bench caliber player at that time, although his contract is such that he'll continue to be an everyday player.

I'm flabbergasted. Vlad Guerrero -- a much better player than Soriano -- couldn't get close to this a few years ago. Carlos Beltran -- a much better player than Soriano -- got basically the same deal two offseasons ago.

This is worse than the Chan Ho Park deal. It is worse than the Mike Hampton signing.

If this report is correct, I am hard pressed to think of a worse contract signing by any team in baseball history.

Update [2006-11-19 15:50:4 by Adam J. Morris]: -- Just to put this in perspective...Soriano last year, in his best offensive season, was 17th in the N.L. in VORP, behind, among others, Matt Holliday, Brian McCann, Hanley Ramirez, Nick Johnson, and Garrett Atkins.

This is absolutely unreal.

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I'm speechless

I've got nothing else to say.

by BurntOrange on Nov 19, 2006 2:35 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Good for Sori

to get that. I guess he was a lot smarter than many people thought...

by Longhorn on Nov 19, 2006 2:37 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Or...

The cubs front office is a lot stupider than many people thought.

by i hit straight ball very much on Nov 19, 2006 2:37 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

taking all bets...

how soon do the cubs trade soriano for the future, once they realize they still don't have a winning team.

Troy I.

by tdi1985 on Nov 19, 2006 2:39 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

unless

the yankees decide they really want him back that contract is pretty much unmoveable.

by selppuc on Nov 19, 2006 2:41 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I'll take that bet

That contract will make him untradable.

by BurntOrange on Nov 19, 2006 2:42 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

pretty unbelieveable

even if he can hit like he did in his contract year(which he won't) he isn't worth that. add in the loser factor of the cubs organization and this has absolute disaster written all over it.

by selppuc on Nov 19, 2006 2:40 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Lots of money for unclutchness

It's good for the Cubs that they won't ever need him to be clutch.

by Chris Martin on Nov 19, 2006 2:42 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

What does this do to Lee

Sheesh, if Sori gets this...what is Lee worth?

by simbaa on Nov 19, 2006 2:44 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Less.....

by tklawless on Nov 19, 2006 8:11 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

What in God's name?

Terrible, just... ugh. I feel bad for Cubs fans.

by cmkelly29 on Nov 19, 2006 2:50 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

No freaking way

That's not the worst contract in the history of baseball, that's the worst contract in the history of contracts.

Dear sweet jeebus I feel bad for Cubs fans.

A Noble Spirit Embiggens The Smallest Man.

by thedirkatron on Nov 19, 2006 2:56 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

You're wrong

As bad of a contract Soriano's is, Mike Hampton by far is A LOT worse.

8 years/121M for Hampton is worse than
8 years/136M for Soriano

by Coolbean04 on Nov 19, 2006 3:09 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

no...

it isn't

rage against the gold club

by erikj07 on Nov 19, 2006 3:11 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Yep.

by Longhorn on Nov 19, 2006 4:19 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

both are

pretty bad but the fact that Hampton was a pitcher makes his better. A pitcher is always tradable. There will be another big swinging homerun hitter in the next 8 years. There is no way for the Cubs to get out of this one. I think the eight years is the worst part of this deal. Who knows what the baseball economy will look like in 5 to 8 years.

"Stubbornness is usually considered a negative, but I think that trait has been a positive for me." ~ Cal Ripken Jr

by kwellborn on Nov 19, 2006 8:25 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

You nailed it

there is a lot of overreaction, but this isn't close to as bad as Hampton's contract. Soriano is likely to be a better than league average player most of his contract.

Still, its a bad contract, and it reminds me of how much Detroit would have suffered if Juan signed the 8 years, $140 million contract.

Personally, I think I'd go with a hard rule of never signing a contract over 5 years if I was a team. There is way too much risk with guaranteed contracts to lock up longer than 5, and I'd probably be shooting for 3 year contracts.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200601019_after_pats_birthday/ --Kevin Tillman's tribute to Pat Tillman.

by DJCahill on Nov 20, 2006 6:20 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Soriano's position

They are saying over on the Cubs blog that he will play CF and hit leadoff. Good luck with all that.

by Chris Martin on Nov 19, 2006 3:10 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Yep

That should be entertaining.

by Adam J. Morris on Nov 19, 2006 3:13 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Jim Hendry

=worst GM in baseball. This is sheer desperation and spending $$$$ for the sake of spending money. It gives them a linep something like this:

Soriano (CF)
DeRosa (2B)
Lee (1B)
Ramirez (3B)
Barrett (c)
Jones (RF)
Murton (LF)
Izturis (SS)

That is still a pretty medicore lineup, even in the NL Central.

by pblack on Nov 19, 2006 3:13 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

that lineup

is better than anything texas can throw out

by dylanj on Nov 19, 2006 4:27 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Mediocre?

by Longhorn on Nov 19, 2006 4:33 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

serioulsy

Derek Lee is a beast, Ramirez hits .300 with 30 HR every year, soriano will add at least 35 maybe more in Wrigley, Murton hit .300 , Jacque jones hits 25 , barret hit over .300 with 16 HR , we all know what derosa did,

what exaclty about that lineup is mediocre especially for a NL team

by dylanj on Nov 19, 2006 4:45 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

i'm not sure

if he was question whether or not that line up is mediocre...
or if he was correcting the first poster's spelling.

Troy I.

by tdi1985 on Nov 19, 2006 4:51 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

perhaps both

Troy I.

by tdi1985 on Nov 19, 2006 4:52 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Sori may hit 50 at Wrigley

by tklawless on Nov 19, 2006 8:12 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

but still not be worth that $$$

by tklawless on Nov 19, 2006 8:13 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I'm in the minority

but I think that's a real solid lineup. Lee is excellent, and Ramirez is very good. Soriano, Barrett and Murton are solid hitters, and Jones was solid last year. DeRosa is a question mark, but he's at least ML average at 2B, probably a fair amount above average. Izturis/Cedeno is a gigantic hole. I haven't added up numbers or anything, but other than SS, that's not bad. And by the way, I'd be tempted to play DeRosa at SS and Theriot at 2B sometimes.

Having said that, they are paying out the ass for guys like Soriano, Lee and Ramirez, and DeRosa, Barrett and Jones aren't that cheap. And their pitching staff, unless they manage to through tons more dollars at it, would be a long shot to support that lineup into a top team. And their payroll would just be gigantic if they did that in addition to signing Sori and Aramis.

by Brett Perryman on Nov 20, 2006 1:35 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

later is the problem

You're right, the lineup is pretty good, and the Cubs will be fine offensively in '06, it's '08 and after when this signing is going to look worse and worse.

by t ball on Nov 20, 2006 7:11 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

just curious....

what are the predictions for what zito, schmidt, and lee will sign for after this and the matsuzaka bombshells

rage against the gold club

by erikj07 on Nov 19, 2006 3:13 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

i dont know

but if this is an indication of the market, i'd just assume the rangers sit this one out

Pimps be damned, it's harder out here for a Rangers fan!

by rentz on Nov 19, 2006 3:20 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Market

I'm beginning to hope we sign Padilla and then try and pick guys up on the cheap through trades instead of getting involved in this market because it is unreal.

by shrinking violet on Nov 19, 2006 4:20 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

x

Is it strange that my first reaction to this news is sadness? This contract doesn't seem good for baseball, and it's frustrating that bad GMs of bad organizations hurt the game by moneywhipping players considered overrated almost universally.

by alon91 on Nov 19, 2006 5:56 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Why are you sad now ?

How about $51.1M just to sit down with Boras ? That didn't make you "sad for baseball" ?

by tklawless on Nov 19, 2006 8:14 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

less so

We'll see if Matsuzaka gets signed, and for how much. And there more unknowns with that deal: the amount of revenue from the Japanese market, Matsuzaka's true abilities, etc.

Soriano is an established player, with well known limitations. Casual fans probably think Soriano is an elite player, but GMs are paid to understand baseball better than anyone else. The fact that a GM paid Soriano like a superstar is crazy.

by alon91 on Nov 19, 2006 10:07 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Predictable

It should not be that big a surprise that the Cubs are spending, and most likely will continue to spend, lots of gum money. Sweet Lou didn't hire on to rebuild from the minor leagues. My guess is that Cub management made a strong commitment to Lou before he was hired that they would spend big in the off-season. So far, they have. Could Carlos Lee be the next big Cub signing? Why not.

by T Coleman on Nov 19, 2006 7:43 PM CST reply actions 0 recs