CC Sabathia opting out of his contract is certainly not a surprise. The Tigers being mentioned as a suitor is. Sabathia is one of the best around, but I don’t like giving any pitcher long term contracts for that much. Here’s a list of the biggest pitching contracts in MLB history – have any of these worked out? (Thank you Cot’s for the research)
- Sabathia – $161M for 7
- Santana $137.5m for 6
- Zito $126M for 7
- Hampton $121M for 8
- Lee $120M for 5 (he’s only 1 year into his deal)
- Kevin Brown $105M for 7
- Zambrano $91.5M for 5
Off the top of my head, only Sabathia performed at the top of the league for multiple years…so as a result he’s asking for more… I don’t blame him, it’s a free market and a well negotiated contract. But I certainly hope that the Tigers don’t lock themselves into anything like that. FYI – Tigers 2010 payroll of $105M was 10th in the league. Yankees’ was 1st at $202M.
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