BY SCOTT LAUBEROK, imagine you're Dustin Pedroia. In two seasons in the majors, you've won a Rookie of the Year award, a Silver Slugger, a Gold Glove, and last month, you were crowned AL MVP. You worked for $457,000 this year, a shade more than the major-league minimum salary, and you're not eligible for arbitration until after next season.
So, financially speaking, what do you do?
Well, Pedroia decided today to sign a six-year contract extension with the Red Sox for a guaranteed $40.5 million, and across baseball, the deal is being met with three words:
What a bargain.
But this, folks, is only another example of why players and teams agree on long-term deals. The Sox secured Pedroia's services at a relatively fixed rate in a baseball economy that historically has escalated every year. Chase Utley, widely regarded as baseball's best second baseman, signed a seven-year, $85 million contract with the Phillies in 2007, when he had one more year of service time than Pedroia and was on the verge of salary arbitration. Pedroia, the majors' next-best second baseman (sorry Dan Uggla, but it's true), could've held out for that much cash, if not more. But with another year until arbitration and four more until free agency, Pedroia, already 25, opted for the security of a multiyear contract. Now, if he gets injured or his performance slips, he still will be financially solvent, likely for the rest of his life.
Everybody wins.
We'll have plenty of time over the next few months to discuss the merits of giving long-term deals to Ryan Howard, Cole Hamels and the Phillies' other arbitration-eligible players. (Readers of this blog know how I feel about giving Howard a long-term deal, or at least the kind of long-term deal that he desires.) For now, though, I'll leave you with this: Unless Howard, Hamels and the others are willing to make like Pedroia, himself a highly accomplished player, and sacrifice some dollars for the privilege of long-term security, it doesn't behoove the Phillies to get involved.
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