The league is making more money than it ever has before and if this report is true, then good for the White Sox I guess, but holy shit the players union has to be pissed. According to ESPN’s Buster Olney, the White Sox offer to Machado is only for $175 million over seven years. We can all agree that Machado is better than Jason Heyward, who got $184 million over eight years from the Cubs back in the winter of 2015.
The White Sox offer to Machado is for $175 million, over seven years. In some ways, their approach is like Boston's w/ J.D. Martinez last winter — the Red Sox offered $100 million and waited for two months. If CWS offer emerges as best, a big ? is: Would Machado/NYY re-engage?
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) January 16, 2019
That’s only an average of $25 million per season. Contracts are supposed to go up, not down.
A $25m AAV is about the same as the 2019 base salary for Jordan Zimmermann, Jake Arrieta, and Joey Votto (T-13th highest). Slightly more than Cano, JD Martinez, Homer Bailey, and Josh Donaldson. https://t.co/uVlPY2mZbz
— Lindsey Adler (@lindseyadler) January 16, 2019
Of course, there are several things to consider. Maybe the White Sox view the Phillies as a non-threat and believe they’re more focused on signing Bryce Harper, so they don’t want to bid against themselves. Or what if the leak of this offer is coming from Machado’s camp, hoping to get more interest around the league because that offer is an insult for a 26-year-old star in today’s MLB.
Or maybe that’s just what the market is right now, which seems ridiculous, but we’ve seen contracts decline during the past two offseasons. And the final possibility is the worst. What if the White Sox are simply low-balling Machado?
On Sunday, Jeff Passan, also from ESPN, reported the White Sox offered an eight year deal to Machado. Hector Gomez said it was worth $250 million according to a source. However, since then almost every other MLB reporter has said the White Sox haven’t changed their initial offer of seven years and that includes Olney who is reporting the specific $175 million figure.
Bruce Levine has also said that the White Sox were only offering seven years for $25 million to $30 million average annual value.
Just unreal and you shouldn’t be surprised if Machado doesn’t sign until February, because he’s definitely worth more than that.
