Would you believe the New York Mets are still paying Bobby Bonilla $1 Million a year for the next 25 years – even though he left the club in 2000? And the Dodgers are on the hook for $45 million with Manny Ramirez, despite his disgraceful exit from baseball for testing positive (3 times) for Performance Enhancing Drugs. How can this happen? Check out this great article in the L.A. Times that chronicles how teams pay millions for players no longer on their roster.
While I am a true blue Yankee fan, one of the reasons I also root for the Oakland A’s (when they’re not playing the Bronx Bombers) is because they believe in developing talent from the farm. They’ve had some great talent emerge from their minor league teams (Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, Barry Zito and others) – but sadly they lose that talent over time because they can’t compete with the big market clubs. This year it’s exciting to watch the Kansas City Royals, who are using a lot of home-grown players most people have never heard of and in a few years they will be a really good team.
Bottom line: many owners sign players to long term contracts they live to regret. That’s why it’s fun to see new talent (like Buster Posey of the Giants) emerge from the farm teams. He’s making “only” $575k a year – a real bargain in baseball!
