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.