Rangers Sign Yu Darvish; Who’s the “One Dumb Owner” Now?
Every winter one MLB team owner is dubbed the “One Dumb Owner” for giving out a ridiculous, mega-bucks contract (think Ted Lerner last year for the Jayson Werth debacle). This year that title has been anointed to the Angels Arte Moreno for his 10-year, $254 million commitment to Albert Pujols. But I think the crown should be taken away from Moreno and given to Nolan Ryan and his partners in Texas, who on Wednesday signed Japanese import Yu Darvish to a six-year, $60 million deal.
There are those who will hail this as a brilliant move considering Darvish’s absolutely sick numbers in Japan. And perhaps Darvish will be an American baseball superstar a la Ichiro Suzuki. But adding in the $51.7 million posting fee to Darvish’s former team, Ryan is paying $111.7 million dollars to a man who has never thrown a pitch in the major leagues.
In contrast, Moreno is paying more than twice that to the best player in all of baseball, who has proven at this level, year in and year out, what he is capable of doing. Yes, Pujols might be older than the 31 he claims to be, and yes, in the final years of the contract the Angels will be paying far too much for a player with diminished abilities, but if he delivers a couple of World Series championships before that, who will care?
I would much rather overpay for proven performance than to pay less for potential. Because let’s face it, Darvish is all potential right now; he has proven nothing in the majors. And with the track record of Japanese players coming over here not particularly stellar, this is a huge risk for the Rangers.
Moreno’s signing of Pujols carries much less risk, so it says here there he should he remove his “One Dumb Owner” tiara and hand it to Ryan. I think it would look nice on him.
i don’t think it’s fair to call either of them a dumb owner. at least not yet. pujols is the best player in the game, and the angels did what they needed to to lock him up for the rest of his career most likely. also darvish, while unproven, has shown talent. also, he isn’t the first highly hyped prospect for the majors, and in my opinion, seemed like a fairly worthwhile gamble for a team who has the money. right now, the dumbest owner title still goes to the wilpons for me. through all of their financial problems (after involvement in an illegal scheme), they lower the payroll to its lowest in at least 10 years, and as they continue to say they will hold on to the team bc of how much they love it, they are really only hurting it as it can’t really move forward with them.
just a technicality but the gm is the one who makes the signing too so it’s hard to place dumbest owner based on that. but i understand the point
I don’t think Moreno is dumb — I thought it was a good signing.
As far as Darvish, you said it exactly, Tom — he is a “highly hyped prospect.” That is all he is. He shouldn’t be getting such big money based on what he did in Japan. Sign him to a modest contract like teams do for top players in the draft (still multi-millions) and let him prove himself here. If he does, then give him the big bucks.