Saturday, December 16, 2006

Vernon Wells signs 7 year $126m contract

Yesterday, Vernon Wells signed a 7 year 126 million dollar deal with the Blue Jays:

The extension calls for a $25.5 million signing bonus, payable in three $8.5 million installments each March 1 in 2008, 2009 and 2010. He will receive a salary of just $500,000 in 2008 and $1.5 million in 2009, but his salary jumps to $12.5 million in 2010 and $23 million in 2011. Wells receives $21 million in each of the final three seasons.

In Net Present Value terms that works out to be worth about $83 million., or $10 million cheaper than the NPV of the Daisuke Matsuzaka deal for one more year.

Wells is a good player, according to PM-SLWTS, he was the 22nd best player in baseball last year, and third best centerfielder. Wells who will be 28 next year was far better with the bat last year 29 runs better than average, than he was in the previous two years. However, he was a heck of a hitter in 2003 as well when he was 31 runs better than average.

Going forward, Chone likes him, projecting him to hit .282/.340/.501 for a wOBA of .364 or about 20 runs better than average.

Seems like a very good move, as Wells is the face of the Jays franchise, and as the organization tries to rebuild and expand it's fan base this is the type of move they need to make. They can't allow young Star talent to walk away, and expect the fans to have an emotional attachment to the next guy at that level, if they just expect him to walk out that door as well.

I'll say this, I don't think JP Richardi is a very good GM - but he is very good at spending money. Brian Cashman would be proud.

Labels: ,