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Bundy Blunder?
Tim Bundy is one of the best players in baseball at the moment - if not the best. During the off-season, he was just 26 years old and had put up back-to-back 10+ WAR seasons for me. But he just had one year left on his contract (at $8,656,250). Superstar quality players average $12,500,000 at the moment in my league.
So, I wanted to sign him to an extension. He demanded 10 years at $28,000,000. I tried to negotiate, but he was adamant. There was no way I was going to afford to do that with my mid-market team. So I traded him to Kansas City for a top quality, MBL-ready prospect. I figured, that was better than letting him walk at the end of the year.
But when I checked in later, I discovered that he had signed a 6-year extension with Kansas City for $14,000,000/year. Still a little bit expensive, but I think I would have agreed to that one. (he did have an off year for Kansas City - putting up a measly 8.9 WAR) (rate Stats were in line with previous years, but he missed some time due to injury)
Now, I'm not in that bad of shape over this. Juan Gutierrez, The 22-year old SS I traded for, put up 4.0 WAR in his sophomore year, is still developing, and only cost me the league minimum. Still, I do like having those superstars playing for me in their primes - both for the team and also just to watch their careers from a bit closer up.
I suspect I'm better off in the long run - but I'm curious how he went from adamantly 10yrs/$28,000,000 to settling for 6yrs/$14,000,000. I could have kept him on for that final year of the contract, and maybe ended up signing him to more favorable extension similar to what Kansas City got - or then again, maybe I would have lost him to free agency and got just 1 year of 8.9 WAR and a compensation pick. It would have been riskier, for sure.
Hm. So what do you think? Did I make a smart move, or commit a Bundy Blunder?
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