Like this:

If signing Adam Lind to a 4-year, $18 million dollar extension with three (THREE!) club options is NOT a steal, sue me for defamation.*

The deal takes Lind through all his arbitration years, and then the club options kick in just as he becomes eligible for free agency. I don’t think there’s any way this can be painted as less than a stellar deal for the Jays. Last year, Adam Lind was the best designated hitter in the league. His OPS  was .932 . Just to put it in some sort of perspective, Lind will make an average of $4.5 M over the next four years, while DH Travis Hafner (.826 OPS in 2009) will make $14.25 M and DH David Ortiz (.794 OPS in 2009) will make $13 M. Oh ya, the 3 club options after that? $7 M, $7.5 M and $8 M. Wow.

The signing also invokes memories of other Jays outfielders who were given extensions right after breakout years. Alex Rios anybody? How did that one turn out? That’s not to say AA’s made a bad move by pulling the trigger on an extension right after a Lind’s break out year. Quite the opposite really. What was wrong with the Rios deal was that J.P. gave him $70 million over 7 years. He also gave V-Dub $126 million over seven years (though I will admit, I thought it was a good signing at the time). If the Jays pick up all three of Lind’s options, he will only make $38.5 M over seven years.

How AA managed to keep that Rios/Wells type of money away from Lind is a mystery to me. I mean Lind has only had one good season, but he has to know if he keeps it up he’s worth well more than $7.5 M on the free agent market. Either a) he can’t count, b) is taking a team friendly contract, or c) AA is a magician. I’m going to go with c).

*I took Media Law last year, but I still can’t seem to remember if the title of this post could result in me getting sued for defamation or libel or something. I probably need some sort of disclaimer: The title of this post was in no way intended to be factual or taken seriously.

Advertisement