Sanchez's San Francisco Signing Shows Pirates What Might Have Been

Freddy Sanchez is a good "sport." The Pittsburgh Pirates' management is not. Sanchez re-signed with the San Francisco Giants at a total of $12 million for two years, or $6 million per. This compares to the $10 million that FanGraphs values him at for 2009 alone. My readers know that I would have gladly offered Sanchez $12 million for ONE year. Given a limping second half, after his strong first half, that may represent an overpayment for his baseball contributions. It would probably fairly values his baseball AND civic contributions to the city. But Sanchez was willing to sign for much less than $12 million per. We now know that he would have signed for six. Even if we "padded" the deal to $8 million per (as a very shrewd hotel man named Conrad Hilton would do in "strategic" situations), Sanchez would still be a bargain. But the Pirates tried to chisel him down to $10 million over two years or $5 million per, and wouldn't listen to a counteroffer from him before trading him for Tim ... (link)