I think contracts have to be evaluated at least at two points:
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- When they are signed
- When we can see the results.
The article goes in length to explain how out of nowhere Sandoval's collapse came from. I mean today this contract is probably the worst in history in terms of dollars vs performance but no one could have seen this then.On Nov. 25, 2014, the Red Sox signed a 27-year-old third baseman to a five-year contract. That player was a career .294/.346/.465 hitter, which is a pretty big deal for someone who spent half of his time at AT&T Park. He was a (deserved!) Gold Glove finalist and a switch hitter, and his swing was absolutely built for Fenway Park, like few hitters before him.
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And that is the bottom line. In baseball players work for 6 years under team control, and 3 of them with absolutely no say in their salaries (3 further under arbitration). After 6 years they get paid, and many miss their marks. Again, we may never see a player miss the mark as horribly as Sandoval did.Paying baseball players to get older is always a bad idea. Time will come for them all, even Mike Trout, and yet teams have to pay them as if that’s not true because it’s just about the only way to build a competitive team.