New York Mets general manager Sandy Alderson called the free agent market “robust,’’ but he’s a contributor in making it so.
We all know Robinson Cano and Jacoby Ellsbury – both good players will get their money – but they aren’t the ones driving up the market.
Salaries aren’t driven by the stars getting large salaries, but when mediocre and questionable talent are given huge paydays.
The bar gets set when Chris Young – thanks to Alderson – gets $7.25 million. The market is also influenced when a PED user such as Jhonny Peralta gets a four-year, $52-million contract from St. Louis. For all the talk about the Mets being interested, it is just as well they didn’t sink that kind of money into player whose numbers are suspect because of PEDs.
So please, I don’t want to hear Alderson moan about the high salary demands when he helped create the environment that leads to those demads. That includes being in the market for a PED user like Peralta.
Retiring commissioner Bud Selig is going after Alex Rodriguez though questionable methods, yet his legacy will also include large contracts for guys like Peralta.
Reliever David Aardsma tweeted over the weekend after learning of the Peralta deal with the Cardinals: “Apparently getting suspended for PEDs means you get a raise. What’s stopping anybody from doing it? … I had 2 major surgeries in 5 months and made it back clean, nothing pisses me off more than guys that cheat and get raises for doing so.’’
He’s right.
I don’t know how you can regulate teams against signing PED users. It’s their money and they are the ones taking the risk.
So many players have benefitted from using PEDs, and regardless of whether MLB nails Rodriguez or not, that will continue.
Which makes me wonder what’s Selig’s real objective?