Kevin McGonigle Gets Massive Contract From Detroit Tigers, Once Again Proving Small Market Teams Have Money
The Tigers are finally spending like a big market club to keep their young stars.
Discussion around Major League Baseball over the last year and a half has revolved around the seeming disparity in spending between the big markets and small market teams.
The Los Angeles Dodgers lead the league in payroll again, by a wide margin, while the New York Mets have ranked in the top two or three each of the last five years. Meanwhile, small market organizations have cried poor, as teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates, Miami Marlins, and Tampa Bay Rays rake in massive amounts of revenue sharing money that they've mostly pocketed.
Just a few weeks ago though, the Pirates agreed to sign the best prospect in baseball, Konnor Griffin, to a record-breaking extension before he'd even played a single game in the big leagues.
On Wednesday, news broke that yet another small market team, the Detroit Tigers, had agreed to a gigantic contract extension for a top prospect with less than a month of experience. Shortstop/third baseman Kevin McGonigle inked an eight-year, $150 million deal this week after playing just 17 regular season games in MLB. Guess there's money to be spent on players after all.
Detroit Tigers third baseman Kevin McGonigle against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field. (Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images)
Kevin McGonigle Gets Massive Contract From The Detroit Tigers
In the abstract, the deal makes sense for both sides. The Tigers get to buy out several years of McGonigle's free agency period at a reduced cost, guaranteeing that they have their starting shortstop for the majority of the next decade. McGonigle gets the certainty of generational wealth, ensuring that even if his career doesn't progress to superstardom, he'll be set for life.
Though he gives up some earning potential in the first few years of free agency, the certainty makes up for some of it.
But it once again highlights the issue with small market teams crying poor. Factoring in present day value, this contract is more than the Dodgers gave Freddie Freeman. It's more than Tyler Glasnow is getting, more than Tommy Edman and Teoscar Hernandez will receive, combined.
It's the same that Kyle Schwarber got from the Phillies, and a similar number to Cody Bellinger. This also comes after the Tigers guaranteed $115 million to Framber Valdez, and $140 million to Javier Baez. They have money!
To be fair to Detroit and other small market teams, they still have nowhere close to the resources that teams like the Dodgers, Mets, or Yankees enjoy. But this is where the constant complaining becomes so grating. They are able to sign top dollar free agents or hand out big extensions to young players to keep them where they are. They choose not to. Not because they can't afford it, but because it adds risk and limits franchise valuations.
Where the Dodgers have excelled is signing top dollar free agents that don't blow up in their face, then surrounding those free agents with homegrown talent. It's easier said than done, as the Mets have demonstrated, but when teams like the Pirates have a good young core with Griffin, Paul Skenes, and Bubba Chandler, they could and should sign targeted free agents to fill in holes on the roster. They just choose not to.
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McGonigle may turn out to be a star, and early returns have been exceptional, with a .311 batting average, .417 on base percentage and .492 slugging percentage, good for a 162 weighted runs created plus. The question now is, how serious are the Tigers about keeping Tarik Skubal in town and building around the talented young players they've developed?