Los Angeles, California– Am I missing something here with baseball? Are the owners and players living in some alternate universe or something? The money that is thrown around by these people is mind blowing. To me it is a slap in the face to the millions of fans who struggle to watch this game either by paying exorbitant cable TV prices every month or attending a game. The key word here is “Game.”
When owners shell out hundreds of millions of dollars for players that are the best in the business as well as the lowest of quality players, it is hard to feel sorry for them when a player goes down to injury or doesn’t live up to what was expected of him for all that money.
Today it has been reported by MLB that the Mets billionaire owner, Steve Cohen, will spend $86 million dollars on a two-year contract for RHP Justin Verlander, with a $35 million vesting option for 2025. He will be 40 years old on Opening Day. Along with Max Scherzer, who is in his second year of a three-year contract where he will earn another $43,333,333 per year, the cost for the Mets for this duo of super starters, who will have a combined age of 79 this summer, will be over $86 million per year for the next two years.
Scherzer has averaged 6.5 innings per game, over the past two seasons. A stat that is quite normal for starters who are only allowed to pitch 6.5 innings for fear that their arms will explode. Having 53 starts in that two year period, Scherzer starts an average of 26 games per season. At $43 million over 172 innings that’s a staggering $244,318 per inning! Verlander’s numbers are about the same. Is this “Stupid money?”
Image Credit: Bill Menzel/Latino Sports
Seriously, how much money do you need to be happy today? I know, I know, if someone is stupid enough to give you all that cash, you would be stupid not to take it. But what is the limit? Is there a limit? Seems like there is no limit. Owners seem to have a lust for out doing their competition. Are they great business people or just having fun spending their wealth.
Passing the costs of all this spending on to the fans will never end but it comes with a risk far grater than the money spent on two aging pitchers. When fans get tired of spending their hard earned cash on baseball and look to other less expensive sports entertainment, baseball will never get them back. Nor will they foster the enthusiasm for the game on the next generation of baseball fans.
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