It seems that Holliday's best offer in terms of yearly salary was $20.5MM from the Rockies before the '08 season, but the lack of a no-trade clause devalued it. It appears that the Red Sox outdid the Cardinals by a million or two per year, but Boston's offer is no longer on the table. Perhaps Scott Boras is holding out for a sixth guaranteed year or $18MM per, but with no obvious competition there's no reason for the Cardinals to raise their offer. The Orioles' interest waned quickly and the Mets are currently focused on Jason Bay. In Boras' perfect world Bay would not sign with the Mets, and they'd tangle with the Cards for Holliday.
From Buster Olney's twitter: "Boras started doubling back to teams to talk about Holliday. Stated asking price in at least one conversation was $18 mill. a year." I wonder what teams out there besides the Yankees would be willing to pay that much.
That's more than acceptable for someone of Holliday's caliber. If we defer some of that money he can still average a very budget friendly $16M and defer $1 million per for the ten years after the deal expires (or he retires).
Fat Strat wrote:That's more than acceptable for someone of Holliday's caliber. If we defer some of that money he can still average a very budget friendly $16M and defer $1 million per for the ten years after the deal expires (or he retires).
