The $120 Million Man: Matt Holliday signs with Cards for seven years

Posted on January 5, 2010

Matt Holliday of the St. Louis Cardinals takes batting practice before Game 1 of the National League Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on October 7, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Brad Mangin)

 

The St. Louis Cardinals have an advantage over every other Big League club. If they can get a player to wear the red and white for a few games at Bush Stadium there is no way the player- in this case Matt Holliday– will ever want to leave. With this is mind it came as no surprise when the slugging left fielder signed a seven-year $120 million contract to remain with the Cardinals this afternoon. Holliday batted .353 with 13 home runs and 55 RBIs in 63 games with the Cards after being acquired in a July trade from the downtrodden Oakland A’s.

Led by his pain-in-the-ass agent Scott Boras, Holliday was the big fish in this winter’s free-agent pond. Boras was hoping to get close to $200 million for Holliday, but in today’s economic climate that just aint gonna happen. Especially if you REALLY look at Holliday’s numbers. The three-time All-Star put up some big numbers during his days with the Rockies playing at Coors Field, but I saw him first hand playing in a normal/awful ballpark last season when he played for the Swingin’ A’s. Yikes! He might as well have been Mark Carreon! A .286 batting average with 11 homers and 54 RBI’s in 346 at bats is not worth $120 million. He had better numbers in St. Louis being protected by Albert Pujols in the line up, but fell apart in the playoffs against the Dodgers, both at the plate and in left field.

The Cards felt pressure to go after Holliday and keep him in St. Louis, in part to prove to 2011 free-agent-to-be Pujols that they are serious about being a winner, but they paid way too much for way too long in this case. Seven years? Sure, there are no better fans in baseball than the Cardinals fans, but there will also be a ton of pressure heaped upon Holliday and he is not one of those guys who is wired to be THE GUY. It did not work in Oakland, and he did better in St. Louis because they were led by Pujols. That all changes this season as Holliday will be expected to put up HUGE numbers to justify that contract. Aside from guys like Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez there are few players who can put up monster seasons and live up to the cash.

Matt Holliday is a $120 Million Man – Images by Brad Mangin