MLB Trade Rumors has a nice summary of the state of Matt Holliday’s market. The upshot: he’s gone from an offer that would have paid him $82 million over four years from the Rockies in 2008 to a five or maybe six year deal that would pay him $80 million from the Cardinals, and maybe a five year, $85 million deal from the Red Sox, though that has been withdrawn.
Negotiation: you’re doing it wrong, Matt Holliday.
How much longer is Holliday going to hold out? Historically speaking, big free agents don’t get better offers over time. At best they stay stagnant. Remember Manny Ramirez? He got his first offer from Dodgers on November 7th last year. It was for two years and $45 million. Boras said the offer wasn’t long enough. On March 3rd he signed 2 years and $45 million. Yeah, I guess he got an opt-out provision out of it, but even then it seemed like a bit of pipe dream that he’d ever get to use it.
Maybe I’m just conservative by nature and prefer that bird in the hand to the two in the bush. But even so, it strikes me that Holliday should have taken the Rockies’ offer in 2008 and, at the very least, should have jumped at any offer of $80+ million that came along after that.
He’s lost one already from Boston. He may or may not get another one from the Mets. How much longer until St. Louis pulls its offer off the table?
