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Is Larry Beinfest History’s Greatest Monster?

Despite the fire sale, general manager Larry Beinfest has done his usual outstanding job in the Delgado/Beckett/Lowell deals and gotten some nice young talent. Remember, he got you a year’s worth of Carlos Delgado for just $4 million (plus what he sent to the Mets), and as long as he is in charge the team will always have a bright future.

Harrington made a stupid gamble, not just because he lost the $4 million the Rox offered, but because the “opportunity cost” of his decision was staggering. However, the extra $950,000 Harrington wanted, completely blinded his agent, his family, and himself. What did he lose (and other prospects routinely gamble with) beyond the $4 million?

Two years of minor league instruction (and counting).

Two years of the Rockies' protection.

What I mean is this: Harrington’s shoulder is giving him grief. How the Rockies would view this as opposed to an Independent League operator is the difference between night and day. Naturally, the more we invest in something, the better care they’ll take of that investment. The Long Beach Breakers/St. Paul Saints invested only his modest salary into Harrington. So, if Harrington’s shoulder acts up, all they’ll say in effect is: "Thanks for everything, hope your shoulder feels better." If he got hurt playing for one of the Rockies’ minor league affiliates, well the Rockies would look at the $4 million bonus and think: “We’ve got a lot invested in this guy, we’d best get him the best help.” Harrington and his family have to pay the bills generated by doctor’s consultations, travels to said doctors, cost of treatment/surgery/rehab with only his meager salary that he received playing for the Breakers/Saints.

Had he taken the Rockies' offer, he’d still be $4 million to the good and his medical attention would be paid by the Rockies. One poster on Baseball Primer suggested that it’s entirely possible that Harrington had medical insurance to defray these costs. It’s still a huge shortfall for several reasons: (1) Generally insurance doesn’t cover 100% of the costs and there are limits to how much they’ll cover. (2) The insurance company is only interested in getting his shoulder to where it’s functional for an average human being—not necessarily the same things as getting his shoulder to the point where he can throw 92-94 MPH. (3) Insurance companies are concerned with cost containment. They’ll have a list of doctors that charge the least for their services, so Harrington wouldn’t get the best available care. So even if Harrington did have insurance, it would be of minimal benefit (plus he would still have the out-of-pocket expenses of the premiums). If he were with the Rockies, he’d have gotten the best care at no cost to himself.

Free-agent eligibility

Most guys that go early in the draft are of the mindset that they’ll be successful major leaguers (at least we hope they do). So I cannot fathom when they hold out for say an extra million and are willing to re-enter the draft the following year. Setting themselves back a year in their development seems to be a collosal waste of money. I have no hard data to back this, but it appears to me that the difference between hitting the free-agent market at age 28 or 29 as opposed to 30 or 31 is sufficiently large monetarily to make holding out for a larger draft bonus to be foolhardy. To use an extreme example, there’s no way anybody would’ve paid Barry Bonds [as a free agent] that they paid for Alex Rodriguez. Bonds had a season for the ages but that wouldn’t translate into A-Rod money for Bonds simply because Rodriguez hit the free-agent market in his mid-20s whereas Bonds is in his late 30s.

Let’s crunch some hypothetical numbers to demonstrate what I mean: Let’s say as a 29-year-old free-agent pitcher he’d receive a six year/$54 million contract but as a 31-year-old free agent, he'd get a four year/$30 million deal. So, they were willing to risk a potential $24 million just to get an extra $950,000. Factor that in with what they actually lost ($4 million bonus, medical expenses, minor league instruction) and their gamble was sheer, mind bending, drooling, slack-jawed, knuckle-dragging, swingset-built-too-close-to-the-house-as-a-kid stupidity.

The only way their decision makes even a miniscule bit of sense is that [Harrington] thought within himself "I’ll never make the big leagues, I’ll suck in the minor leagues, so I’d best get all I can before they realize that I reek as pitcher since I have no marketable skills and am looking at a career where I’ll spend my life saying ‘Would you like fries with that?’"

Such short-sighted stupidity. That’s the trouble when so much emphasis is placed by the player/agent/player’s family on maximizing the signing bonus regardless of the potential costs. To me, the best thing a young amateur player can do is have his agent negotiate the best deal he can within a time frame that allows the player to get started in his professional career. I hope Harrington’s folly will be an example for others to follow. Get all you can without losing the sight of the long-term ramifications.