My prediction: We sign Robert for a total of $65 mil. Yours?

[CardsofSTL]

All this talk about money...

[ghostrunner]

All this talk about money...

Let's exhume him and see what we've got.

[cardinalkarp]

That was much easier to say back then when they didn't make squat.

[Famous Mortimer]

I've been thinking about this more than a healthy amount of time now and one thing that hasn't been mentioned yet that probably factored into the decision...

If the Cardinals had signed him to a (let's say) $30M bonus and paid a $30M tax. That's 6 years, presumably, of MLB control for a total payment of $60M+his contract.

How would that sit with the current players? Marp is on a 6 year/52M deal. It would cost more in bonus to sign this guy than they will pay Carp for 6 years of baseball. Gyorko is 6/32 i think. Same thing. I know it's not something we think about, but Robert would have become one of the top paid players before he ever set foot on the field. You'd like to think the players understand the scenario, but I can certainly envision that not being the best for morale in the short term. What is good for morale, obviously, is winning. So, if he helps with that, then it is probably a moot point. Still...something to think about.

One would hope they'd think "if a bunch of people thought I was the best prospect they'd seen in decades, I'd probably get a decent payday too".

[InvincibleCakeEater]

I've been thinking about this more than a healthy amount of time now and one thing that hasn't been mentioned yet that probably factored into the decision...

If the Cardinals had signed him to a (let's say) $30M bonus and paid a $30M tax. That's 6 years, presumably, of MLB control for a total payment of $60M+his contract.

How would that sit with the current players? Marp is on a 6 year/52M deal. It would cost more in bonus to sign this guy than they will pay Carp for 6 years of baseball. Gyorko is 6/32 i think. Same thing. I know it's not something we think about, but Robert would have become one of the top paid players before he ever set foot on the field. You'd like to think the players understand the scenario, but I can certainly envision that not being the best for morale in the short term. What is good for morale, obviously, is winning. So, if he helps with that, then it is probably a moot point. Still...something to think about.

Maybe those guys shouldn't have signed their team friendly extensions...

[lukethedrifter]

All this talk about money...

So how much does DeWitt love baseball? Enough to let us all in free?

[CardsofSTL]

I don't deny anyone getting their pay day...and I am sure there are players that value things more than their salary; I just think it's under-reported. It would be nice to hear players talking about love of the game rather than understanding that the game is a business once in a while.

[pioneer98]

There is not a single team that would open their books for the public.

Which is a travesty when teams like the Barves are getting millions in public funds.

[Radbird]

If I was pulling in $5M+ per year, would I give a crap what anybody else was making? Probably not.

[MrCrowesGarden]

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