Dollars and Sense

Last night, James Shields did his ever-diminishing impression of a major-league pitcher in a 6-4 White Sox loss to the Twins.  With runners on the corners and one out in the bottom of the first, Shields fielded a comebacker, turned around and did his best to toss the ball into center field.  Somehow, second baseman Yolmer Sanchez snared the throw to get the runner going to second, but the damage was done, one run in and one more to go in the first.

On the night, Shields yielded four earned runs on five hits and three walks (and that mental error) to put his record at 2-5 with a 5.72 ERA, but you know what?  Odds are, he’ll be back.  Want to know why?  Because he has one more year guaranteed on his contract at $21 million.

Basically, the Padres (who signed him) and Sox (who agreed to take on part of the contract) will split the cost, so, theoretically, the Sox could buy Shields out for $11 million.  This would be textbook addition-through-subtraction but that would require the front office admitting it made a big mistake trading for Shields in 2015.  Given that nobody yet has owned up to signing the Adam twins (Dunn and LaRoche), don’t expect a sudden fit of honesty on 35^th Street.

It could be worse.  The Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera cleared waivers, and the only way any team picks him up is if Detroit assumes virtually all of the $184 million (!!) left on his contract, that extends another five years.  If nothing else, baseball will punish any team that goes dumb by going long.