Are the Giants Trying to Anger Lincecum?
As the San Francisco Giants and Tim Lincecum head towards an arbitration hearing both sides are trying to hammer out a deal that would nix the necessity for a hearing. After hearing what the Giants are offering Lincecum one has to wonder what the Giants are thinking.
Reports have the Giants offering Lincecum roughly $37 million for the next three years, a nice sum for a guy essentially playing for the league minimum the past couple of years. But, to me, the offer seems a bit of an insult and like the Giants are trying to pull one over on Lincecum.
Consider that they gave Barry Zito a deal worth well over $15 million per season and that was a couple of years after winning a Cy Young Award and is due to make $18.5 million next year.
Consider that Johan Santana, the only other active multiple Cy Young winner still at the top of his game, earned $20 million last season and is due to earn $21 million in 2010.
Tim Lincecum is the two-time defending Cy Young winner in the National League. He is one of the very select few to win back-to-back Cy Young Awards in any league and the Giants are only willing to pay him $12 million a year. I guess maybe since the offer is slightly more than Lincecum is asking for in arbitration they figured he would take it.
Let’s be real here though. The only reason Lincecum is asking for as little as he is is because he knows when he wins it will be the highest amount ever awarded. Lincecum’s handlers know they cannot ask for the upwards of $20 million he would easily command on the open market because there is a good chance he will not win his case. They figure settling for $12 million is much more amenable than getting only $8 million.
What has to be the most insulting to Lincecum though is the fact that his contemporaries, Justin Verlander and Felix Hernandez were just rewarded with much healthier deals and they have not even won one Cy Young Award. Verlander just inked a 5-year deal worth $80 million and paying him $20 mil per season over the last three years. King Felix just signed a 5-year deal worth just under $80 million and paying him an average of $20 mil over the last three years.
Given what Hernandez and Verlander just signed for the Giants need to re-think their bargaining strategy here. If both sides are agreeable to doing a three-year deal that is fine, but, the Giants need to open with a minimal offer in the $40 to $45 million range not $37 million.
Lincecum is shaping up to be a once-in-a-generation pitcher for the Giants franchise and one wonders if they really want to risk losing him via free agency in three years because they did not pay him what he is worthy of. One would think the Giants would be treating him like a king right now given that their chances of getting back to the World Series rest largely on his arm.
