Quote:
Originally Posted by Heltonfan
I have Corpas's expected salary (based on service time and projected WAR) at a total of $5.25 million over the next four years. Of course, closers get overpaid in arbitration (by roughly 75% based on this year's data) - adjusting for that, I get an expected salary of $8.59 million. So we're looking at a small bargain there, and that's with my relatively pessimistic projection for Corpas.
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$5.25 million over four years? How do you get there?
In the first year of his arbitration eligibility, Chad Cordero just settled for $6.2 million with the Nationals.
In what would have been his first year of arbitration eligibility, Corpas is now locked in at $2.75 million.
In his second year of arbitration eligibility, Jose Valverde was beaten by the Astros and will make $4.7 million after asking for $6.2 million.
In what would have been his second year of arbitration eligibility, Corpas is now locked in at $3.5 million.
Brian Fuentes lost his case with the Rockies after asking for $6.5 million and was awarded $5.05 million in his third and final year of eligibility.
In what would have been his third and final year of arbitration eligibility, Corpas is now locked in at $6 million (or $250,000 buyout).
And those are all 2008 figures from this winter. Corpas wouldn't even hit arbitration until 2010, by which time the market for closers presumably will have risen even further. K-Rod just pushed the ceiling for the closer market into 8 figures a year and he
lost his arbitration hearing...
And it's not like they're radically overpaying him in the short term, either. Assuming the deal wasn't signed and Manny Corpas made the minimum through arbitration, per the CBA, that would be $390,000 in 2008 and $400,000 in 2009.
Under this contract, he's slated to make $575,000 in 2008 and $750,000 in 2009. That's only $535,000 more than the minimum over that two year span.
In 2013, what would be his first free agent season, the Rockies hold an $8 million option or a pretty reasonable $500,000 buyout. By that point, with 5 seasons of performance and an understanding of the market conditions at that point, that will be an easy call one way or the other.
I think that this is a very good deal for the Rockies with the potential to be a gigantic bargain if Corpas maintains his current level of performance (or even just approximates it) over the next 4-6 years.