Late Innings

The Brewers signed Prince Fielder this evening to a two year contract for 18MM. He was clearly unhappy last year when the front office renewed his contract for a paltry 670K (he could have gotten the league minimum by the way.) Terms aren’t quite known yet, however if the two parties split their differences with this deal and Fielder got 7MM in 2009, then he’ll get 11MM in 2010. I’m not sure if Scott Boras could negotiate any better than that.

I tried to pick a local story to get some opinion from, and this is the best that I can get:

The Brewers avoid going to the arbitration table with Fielder and won’t have to deal with infamous agent Scott Boras for two years.

Case in point. Negotiating with Boras is a bitch, and as we’ve seen recently, he’s cool with letting his clients ink up to two years in value (e.g. Matt Holiday), especially since we’re currently in a recession and market values won’t have much of an impact of that short period of time. As long as Boras lets his client graduate into the free agency pasture as quickly as he can, then everyone will be happy.

Baring any Nick Markakis-type contract extension, Fielder will become a free agent after the 2011 season.