Theo Epstein Is So Much Better Than Your Guy

As Eddie would say Bang Bang. This is phenomenal news for a whole bunch of reasons: it’s reported the first 4 years are at $56m which makes it a $14m/year deal. I said earlier this year he would probably command 5/$90m on an open market and I was off. BIG. Great job by Theo getting this number down. If you compare career trends with Patrick Corbin who just signed for 6/$140m, Hendricks on this contract is an absolute steal.

Next order of business – budgeting. This means next year’s rotation is Lester ($20m), Quintana ($10.5m), Darvish ($22m) and Hendricks ($14m). That’s pretty pricey but right now they’re paying $20m for Hamels, so you’ll have about $13m next year assuming nothing changes to replace Hamels. That’s not a bad spot when you consider Morrow’s $10m will be off the books too but now I’m just getting ahead of myself.

Looking ahead and more simply, it puts an affordable anchor in the middle of the Cubs rotation for the next 4-5 seasons. If history is any indicator, it’s going to be 5 years. Hendricks has been masterful since cracking the bigs in 2014 and I can sincerely say we are spoiled watching him every 5th day. There’s no pussy footing around. Just right at hitters with everything he’s got – 87mph sinkers and 50 pound changeups. I’d be stunned if he gets less than 135 starts over this contract.

Great job Theo. Great job Kyle. Let’s go play some goddamn baseball.

PS – I asked this last night and most people told me I was stupid because it was too low. Well I think you’re too stupid for doubting Theo in negotiations