Diamond: Zack Greinke, the $1 million per start pitcher
From Jared Diamond at the Wall Street Journal on December 10, 2015, with mention of SABR President Vince Gennaro:
The hour has come. The day has dawned. The paperwork has been signed and sealed with crimson wax. Next season, there will likely be at least one pitcher in Major League Baseball who earns $1 million per start.
It might be David Price, who signed a seven-year, $217 million contract with the Boston Red Sox last week. Or maybe it’ll be Zack Greinke, whose six-year, $206.5 million deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks was finalized on Tuesday. “I wish I was one of them,” Houston Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “It’s a good time to be a really good player in baseball.”
Almost 17 years ago, at the same Opryland hotel here where MLB’s winter meetings came to a close Thursday, the Los Angeles Dodgers made star pitcher Kevin Brown the highest-paid player in history with a seven-year contract worth $105 million. The deal drew fierce criticism from all over the league. San Diego Padres owner John Moores called it a “tragic day for baseball.”
This year, free-agent pitchers with far less impressive résumés and far greater injury prospects are blithely topping that.
Read the full article here: http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-1-million-a-start-pitcher-1449791619
Originally published: December 10, 2015. Last Updated: December 10, 2015.