In the 21st century, we are seeing more and more deals being made with special contract manipulations. Manipulations such as opt-out clauses and no-trade clauses have just as much power to incentivize a player has sheer numbers of dollars and years. In this specific case, found in the article “Boldest January Signings of this Century” written by Matt Kelly of MLB.com, the New York Mets shockingly signed their Cuban superstar, Yoenis Cespedes, to a three year deal with a huge caveat.
The opt out clause after one year. The Mets came off a pennant championship and money was tight going forward in the future so the prospects of bringing back their slugging left fielder was non existent, but “an offer from the rival Nationals spurred New York's front office into action. The Mets convinced Cespedes to ink a three-year deal that included an opt-out clause after the first season. The star outfielder opted out in the fall of '16, before inking a four-year, $110 million deal to stay in Queens.” It worked perfectly for both sides. Cespedes probably wanted security in his contract for 2016 to account for possible injury or poor performance, but still wanted to earn a paycheck comparable to what he believed his skills represented. At the time, my first reaction, was “wow… that front office really had to do some magic to pull that off”. New York’s front office couldn’t afford to sign him long term and maybe didn't want to at the time, but the keep Yoenis from going to their divisional rival they pulled it off. This is one of my favorite deals in history because of the option and the faith that Cespedes had to have in himself, and the faith that the Mets had in him.
The reason why this article even was written was, because at the time, the free agent market was as cold as any time in history and the two biggest stars of that class, Yu Darvish and Jake Arrietta, were offered contracts finally and were signed. As a Cubs fan and with the 2018 post season wrapped up for my Cubbies I can say that we made the wrong move, but who knows where these two players careers will end up after the 6 years 110 million and 3 years have passed. But this was another example of teams trying to incentivize players. The Cubs who have been notorious for making big moves in the winter the past five years with Jon Lester’s huge deal, Ben Zobrist’s, and Jason Heyward’s which is one I will delve into soon. Both Darvish and Arrieta were offered the same contract but Arrieta declined and Darvish excepted.
Why? I myself having been asking this question over and over again watching Jake pitch a wonderful season in Philadelphia while Darvish is getting neuropic surgery on his shoulder, but in the context of economics its because of the incentives. If the Cubs sprinkled in an opt-out for next year or a no-trade clause Jake most likely would have agreed to that like how he did in Phily with his 3 year deal with TWO opt-outs!
Next topic question will be "How does money and years on a contract help incentivize players to picking a destination?"
I like your topic. I thought it was interesting how you talked about the Cubs signing Yu Darvish and letting Arrieta go to Philadelphia.
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