Billy Beane continued an Oakland tradition today, locking up yet another promising young starter. The A's GM agreed to sign Trevor Cahill through his arbitration years and then some with a five-year deal that the team confirmed this afternoon.
The contract, which is worth $30.5MM in guaranteed money, according to ESPN.com's Buster Olney, buys out Cahill's last pre-arbitration season, his three arbitration years and at least one free agent year (Twitter link). The A's have two options worth $13MM and $13.5MM for 2016 and 2017, according to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle (on Twitter).
Cahill's contract is along the lines of the five-year, $30MM deals signed by Ricky Romero, Jon Lester, Yovani Gallardo and, more recently, Clay Buchholz. Cahill's deal, negotiated by agent John Boggs, is a record for pitchers with two to three years of big league service, beating Romero's mark from last summer.
The deal represents a departure from Oakland's earlier pitcher extensions. Beane didn't guarantee more than $12.65MM to Tim Hudson, Barry Zito, Rich Harden, Dan Haren or Brett Anderson when he locked them up to long-term deals (keep in mind that those contracts covered different chunks of the players' careers).
Cahill, a California native, turned in a 2.97 ERA with 5.4 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9 across 30 starts in 2010. His first two starts have gone well in 2011; he has struck out 15 in 12 2/3 innings, allowing just 7 hits and 4 walks for a 1.42 ERA.
Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com first reported the agreement.
Tim Dierkes and Ben Nicholson-Smith contributed to this post.
I pray that they don’t shortchange the guy. Hopefully it’s for something like 5 years/$25MM at least and not some BS 4 year/$13MM type contract they usually sucker their young players into.
contracts are signed by both parties… but i also hope they locked him up past arbitration
Exactly. He has a choice of whether to sign a deal, or not. No one will be forcing his hand.
My guess is the deal will be similar to the 5/$30M that Yovani Gallardo and Ricky Romero signed for, which would give the A’s one post-arb year. But I’m hoping there will also be an option for 2016.
oh those poor ballplayers being conned into getting “only” $3.25 MM a year. How will they live?
I know, right? Don’t you just hate it when these young guys only settle for millions, instead of waiting around for tens of millions (which may, or may not, ever come)?
Next up, Gio!
Barton is rumored to be next in line. But I’m with you on Gio. Hopefully they can lock him up this year, too, before he becomes more expensive. Now that he seems to have put it together, composure-wise, I think the sky is the limit for him.
This is very good news if it finally becomes official. Now on to Gio Gonzalez, hopefully (the ace of that staff, in my opinion)!
Gio’s pricetag might have just gotton a tad bigger after today’s performance, 6 inn shut out against twinkies. The guy is just sick!
I doubt one game will make any difference. But you’re right. His stuff is just sick! So the longer they wait, the more expensive he’ll likely become.
Of course, Gio has a say in things too. And if he believes in his ability to stay healthy and keep pitching well, he may choose to pass up any contract offers, and just go year-to-year with arbitration (which starts next year for him, if I’m not mistaken).
Him and Barton (and maybe Bailey) are probably the only other guys I’d care to see offered multi-year deals in the near future, though. So maybe they’ll be willing to offer him something too good to pass up.
Brett Anderson?
…is one hell of a #2 to have! The consensus among most of us that have watched Gonzalez, Anderson and Cahill regularly for the last year, or so, is that if they all reach their ceiling, Gio will probably be the best of the three.
And that’s not to diminish Anderson or Cahill in any way. They all three certainly have the ability to be dominant for years to come. Gio just seems like he may have the highest ceiling.
EDIT: Sorry. Accidental double post.
I like to look at baseball money in terms of what’s fair for the market value of a player and how much money exists to pay them. We may be able to quip facetiously about how “unfair” a certain amount of money is, in the millions, but it really is unfair if a similarly skilled person in the same profession is making significantly more money than you are. Plus, these guys lose 60% of each paycheck to taxes and agents, so it’s not like when a guy signs a deal for $30MM that he will GET $30MM. More like $12MM. Which, yes, is a lot of money, but perhaps not as much as someone might deserve, commensurate with their performance and their industry- in this case, baseball.
Don’t hate the players, hate the game.
Your math is off. All agent expense is written off so the athlete is not tax on agent fee. CaHill will more likely see about 18 million of the 30 million.
I’ve read extensive quotes from ball players and Hollywood actors (the music biz is a little more complicated what with “masters” and ownership, touring, etc.) but in baseball and Hollywood, actors and players tend to walk away with forty cents on the dollar. Edgar Renteria was quoted just a few months ago after turning down an offer from the Giants for $1MM. I’m paraphrasing, but he said “why should I work for 6 months to make $400,000 when I can make that from my investments [not working for 6 months]”?
There’s another quote out there from actor Matt LeBlanc, from when the Friends cast signed for $1MM an episode. “People have to understand, we’re not walking away with all that money. We have to pay our agents, we have to pay taxes- it’s really more like $400,000 an episode.”
So it stands to reason that Cahill is not keeping 60% of the $30MM like you claim. That’d be if he didn’t have an agent, didn’t have union fees, etc. It’s closer to 40%, maybe it’s 45% if the players have a creative accountant or a solid tax shelter.
I’m not claiming that it isn’t a lot of money, I’m just looking at whether its commensurate with what’s available to pay the player and what a comparable player is making. With that in mind, the $30.5MM Cahill received is a more than fair contract.
“but it really is unfair if a similarly skilled person in the same profession is making significantly more money than you are”
Yes, because all it takes is one player to throw that whole theory out of the water. How many players have signed contracts that the general consensus was that the player was overpaid (it seems most would cite Werth’s $126M/7yr deal). So should similar players expect the same type of contract as Werth or should consideration be given to other factors, such as Washington maybe having to overpay to get someone to go there.
It’s not that I disagree completely with your statement I just think there should be more to it then that.
set for life, nice work trevor.
FINALLY the A’s do right by somebody! This is a fantastic contract- it’s extremely fair and unquestionably lucrative for Cahill while still being affordable, even by a penny pinching team like the A’s!
Who have they ever done wrong by, is what I’d like to know? Brett Anderson, and his lousy $12.5M guaranteed? He signed that deal just a couple weeks into his sophomore season, by the way. The A’s had a PRETTY GOOD idea what they were getting when they signed him. But they couldn’t, and didn’t, know EXACTLY what they were going to get. And he did go on the DL almost immediately after signing the deal, and missed half of 2010, between two different stints. Tommy John surgery seemed like a very real possibility at the time. And who can be sure it won’t recur again? And again?
It’s still entirely too soon to go considering that a ‘team-friendly’ deal, at this point.
We’re also talking about a team who was hamstrung for several years by the record contract that they offered Eric Chavez (who appeared headed down a Hall of Fame career path, at the time of the offer, but couldn’t live up to it due to major injuries).
And we’re gonna blame them for now trying to lock up young guys on the cheap, like EVERY TEAM would love to do as often as possible?
HELL YEAH!!! MAKIN BANK!!!!
cool, now i can feel safe purchasing Cahill’s jersey… NAHT