Long-Term Pacts for Pitchers = Bad Idea
ALSO: BRAVES LOST TOO MANY CHANCES TO BEEF UP THIS WINTER
IBWAA members love to write about baseball. So much so, we've decided to create our own newsletter about it! Subscribe to Here's the Pitch to expand your love of baseball, discover new voices, and support independent writing. Original content six days a week, straight to your inbox and straight from the hearts of baseball fans.
GREAT HOLIDAY BASEBALL GIFT !!
HERE’S THE PITCH 2025
Selected and edited by Dan Schlossberg
(215 pp, $24.95)
This first annual collection of 35 great baseball stories, analysis, memories, and trivia for the baseball fanatics on your gift list (including you) is available now for $24.95 at
But subscribers to this newsletter get 10% off on one copy or 20% off on two or more copies by calling 800-397-2282, talking to a real live person (not an AI robot), and ordering directly from the publisher. Offer good only through December 31, 2024!
Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
The Mets already have nine players set to earn at least $10 million in 2025 and they’re probably not done diving into the free-agent marketplace . . .
No matter how he does for the Nationals, Michael Soroka has to have better numbers than the 0-10 mark he posted for the hapless Chicago White Sox in 2024 . . .
Moving third baseman Nolan Arenado might not be as easy as the Cardinals thought since he’s only willing to waive his no-trade rights to six teams. St. Louis could also pare payroll by moving pitchers Steven Matz ($12 million), Erick Fedde ($7.5 million), and Ryan Helsley (likely $6.9 million) but Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras and Miles Mikolas, like Arenado, are not planning to waive their no-trade clauses . . .
Bill Deane in Cooperstown sent two nuggets worth reprinting:
#What George Orwell called “groupthink” seems to have taken over voting for the major baseball awards. Unanimous selection for the MVP used to be a once-or-twice-per-decade phenomenon that should be even more rare with 30 voters in each league. Yet the last four MVP Awards (and four of the last six Cy Young Awards) have resulted in unanimous selections –- including Shohei Ohtani, who became the first man to win two and then three unanimous MVPs.
In the past two seasons, for the first times ever, there were even unanimous second-place MVP finishers. The Dodgers’ Mookie Betts received all 30 second-place votes for the NL award in 2023, and the Royals’ Bobby Witt, Jr. did the same for the AL honor in ’24. To paraphrase an old saying, if 30 people agree on everything, then 29 of them are unnecessary.
#Dick Allen was elected to the Hall of Fame by The Classic Baseball Era Committee in December, surpassing the 75 per cent needed for enshrinement. This was not surprising, given that Allen had missed by just one vote the last two times he was on the ballot (2015 and ’21), but it would have been shocking any time before that. He went onto the BBWAA ballot in 1983, received just 14 of 374 votes (4%), and was dropped from the slate due to failure to reach the 5% threshold. In 1985, by a back-room decision, Allen and several others were allowed back onto the ballot. Dick remained on through 1997, peaking at 89 of a possible 470 votes (19%) in 1996. (He may have been on the Veterans’ Committee ballot in 2000-01, but ballots and voting results weren’t publicized beyond the selections). In the restructured Veterans’ Committee elections, Allen received 13 of 81 votes in 2003, 12 of 80 in ’05, 11 of 82 in ’07, and 7 of 64 in ’08. Then, in 2011, he didn’t even make the cut to get onto the ballot. He wasn’t eligible in any pre-2015 year that I didn’t mention. In summary, Allen’s annual percentages (for years he was definitely on the ballot through 2014) were as follow: 4-7-10-13-12-8-13-13-16-17-15-16-19-17-16-15-13-11.
Leading Off
Giving Pitchers Long-Term Deals is Risky Business
By Dan Schlossberg
Max Fried is magnificent when healthy but mediocre when injured.
The only team he has known, the Atlanta Braves, learned that the hard way when the star left-hander broke down twice during playoff appearances against the Philadelphia Phillies and also missed more than half of the 2023 season, when he made only 14 starts.
In fact, Fried has pitched as many as 185 innings only once in his eight-year career.
Yet the Yankees decided he was worth an eight-year, $218 million contract — the biggest and longest ever given a left-handed pitcher.
Apparently Brian Cashman is not a student of baseball history.
The bespectacled general manager forgot the lesson of Wayne Garland. A star right-hander with the Baltimore Orioles, he was part of the first free-agent class in 1977.
Garland got a $2.3 million contract — huge money at the time — spread out over 10 years. It was the first and most foolish pact in the history of baseball.
In his first year with Cleveland, he went 13-19 with a 3.59 earned run average. But he also reported pain in his pitching arm the minute 1978 spring training began. Six starts into the regular season, he was diagnosed with a torn rotator cuff that cost him the rest of the season. His career was done too.
The 20-7 season that convinced Cleveland to sign him was Garland’s last in which he won more than he lost. Bottom line: the Indians got scalped. They should have known not to give a long-term contract to a pitcher.
A more recent example, Kevin Brown, was a six-time All-Star when the Dodgers pounced, giving him a seven-year contract as a free agent in 1999. Then they traded him to the Yankees, where he was a total bust before his contract was up.
Brian Cashman surely remembered that while negotiating with Max Fried’s agents.
There are plenty of other tales too: Andy Messersmith, a stud with the Dodgers, was a bust with the Braves. Bruce Sutter, a star with the Cubs and Cardinals, fell on his face in Atlanta after securing a megabucks contract from Ted Turner. Need we say more?
Fried, a survivor of Tommy John surgery before he reached the majors, seems like the second coming of Whitey Ford to Yankee fans. And maybe to Cashman too.
He’s a Gold Glove winner — effectively serving as a fifth infielder — and also a good bunter, hitter, and base-runner. In fact, he will always be the answer to a great trivia question: who was the last National League pitcher to win a Silver Slugger?
But eight years?
The reason Atlanta GM Alex Anthopoulos avoids offering pitchers long-term contracts is fear of injury. The one time he relented — extending Spencer Strider to a six-year, $75 million deal after the 2022 season — he got one good season (20 wins in 2023) and one bad one (elbow brace procedure after two starts in 2024).
And who knows whether the former strikeout king and 20-game winner will ever be the same?
Maybe the 6’4” lefty from Santa Monica will break the pattern. After all, he’s already broken the bank.
Former AP sportswriter Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ is the author of 42 baseball books and regular contributor to forbes.com, Memories & Dreams, USA TODAY Sports Weekly, Sports Collectors Digest, and many other outlets. His email is ballauthor@gmail.com.
Cleaning Up
Braves Could Have Used So Many Who Signed Elsewhere
By Dan Schlossberg
After seeing their six-year streak of division titles end, the Atlanta Braves seemed ready to regain their former perch at the top of the NL East via trades or free agents.
Well, maybe not.
Although the Braves are owned by Denver-based Liberty Media, draw more than three million fans annually, and profit from the team-owned Battery adjacent to Truist Park, the team ran up the white flag of surrender instead.
Desperately needing a shortstop who could hit, Atlanta let Willy Adames sign with San Francisco. Needing a lefty-hitting outfielder, they passed on Houston’s Kyle Tucker and Cody Bellinger of the Cubs. Needing lefty relief help with A.J. Minter’s free agency, the Braves bypassed Aroldis Chapman, who instead went to the Red Sox.
Nor did the Braves bid for Blake Snell before he signed with the Dodgers or try to keep lifelong Brave Max Fried in Braves livery before he jumped to the Yankees. Nor were they a player for Corbin Burnes, a free agent who would rank No. 1 on just about any team he joined.
There are still plenty of productive bodies there for the taking: Joc Pederson, a former Brave, could fill the need for a lefty-hitting outfielder, Michael Lorenzen could be the starter or reliever the team craves, and switch-hitting slugger Anthony Santander would add punch and ability in either outfield corner.
Lorenzen’s agent is pitching him as a two-way player, since the former All-Star has played center field and pinch-hit during a career that also included a no-hitter.
No matter that Liberty Media’s millions make the Braves one of the wealthiest teams in the big leagues. It’s spending — or lack of it — that counts.
While the Los Angeles Dodgers spend a cool billion (with a b) on a handful of players and the arch-rival Mets try to follow in their footsteps, Atlanta appears more anemic today than it was after General Sherman’s rampage.
Every one of its infielders need to rebound from crippling injuries, anemic performance, or both. In the outfield, only Atlanta native Michael Harris II seems intact at this point of the winter. And catcher Sean Murphy, who forgot how to hit after making the 2023 National League All-Star team, seemingly has a death grip on the position despite the presence of prime rookie prospect Drake Baldwin.
The best hitter (Ronald Acuna, Jr.) and best pitcher (Spencer Strider) won’t be back ‘til May after missing most of last season. Ditto Minter if he returns.
Manager Brian Snitker, whose next birthday will be his 70th, doesn’t have the hair to pull out of his head. But he’d like to — even though his stoic stance in the dugout is legendary.
He’s the oldest manager in the league and getting older by the day.
Yes, lots can happen between now and the end of March, when the season starts. But the Mets are infinitely better with the addition of Juan Soto and the subtraction of Max Fried, who ate them up as an opposing pitcher.
The bottom line is the Braves have the money but won’t spend it. Maybe their fans can let them know that is not acceptable in the year 2025.
Here’s The Pitch weekend editor Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ is national baseball writer for forbes.com, columnist for Sports Collectors Digest, and contributor to Memories & Dreams and other outlets. His email is ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia: Why Publicize Salary Figures?
“Agents and the players’ union want salary information to be public because it’s in the players’ best interest. In his autobiography, MLBPA founder Marvin Miller tells a great story from 1967 about the “confusion and secrecy” owners promoted about player salaries, which was very helpful in suppressing their earnings. I also think it’s in the players’ interest for their agents to make that information public, because it results in higher salaries.”
— Tim Dierkes of MLBTradeRumors.com
OF COURSE it’s in the players’ interests, Tim, but hurts teams struggling to compete and fans forced to pay higher prices for everything from parking to hot dogs . . .
The baseball world is in an uproar over Juan Soto, whose 15-year, $765 million pact with the Mets ended Shohei Ohtani’s reign as the salary king one day short of a year after he signed with the Dodgers . . .
The asking price of every free agent jumped every time a big name came off the board as big-market teams engaged in fierce bidding wars . . .
Some teams, notably the Chicago Cubs, made payroll paring top priority, as evidenced by the Cody-for-Cody swap that sent Bellinger to the Bronx for Poteet, a pitcher not likely to provide much help even if he makes the club . . .
Hard to believe the Yankees convinced the Cubs to throw in $5 million to offset Bellinger’s $27.5 million salary, which the AL team could take out of the Soto dollars it saved . . .
Max Fried’s dream of a reunion with Santa Monica high school teammate Jack Flaherty probably died when the Yankees offered him a risky eight-year, $218 million deal that was the biggest in years and dollars ever given to a left-handed pitcher . . .
Flaherty, who had a decent year between Detroit and the Dodgers in 2024, is the target of a half-dozen clubs, ranging from the Red Sox to the Braves.
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles Monday and Tuesday editions, Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] does Wednesday and Thursday, and Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com] edits the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HTP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.