Schadenfreude wrote:CPT wrote:What would be a reasonable offer for Shields?
Can we swoop him and get him before he becomes the consolation prize for the Yanks/Sox?
MLBTR projected $18-22m AAV over five years, which is fairly steep for a guy's age 33-37 seasons. Particularly a guy with Shields' mileage; durability is great, but all those innings catch up to you eventually.
The real concern for someone like Shields is the Doc-esque ending. Not a slow half WAR per season decline into obscurity, but the wham it's all over no more innings whatsoever that could come at any moment.
I'm sure that exists for all pitchers, but guys guaranteed close and above the 35 range with thousands of professional innings logged have to be higher risk for that type of ending. We've seen how painful 7.5m sitting in Ricky can be for a team trying to compete on a mid-tier budget like the Jays, imagine how much worse it gets when it's 20+.