November 9, 2016
BRONX, N.Y. (FNN) — Fresh off winning its sixth World Series championship in eight seasons, the New York Yankees announced today that two free agents, pitcher Stephen Strasburg, and center fielder Bryce Harper, both formerly of the Washington Nationals, have both signed matching and record-breaking seven-year $1 billion contracts with the team. The Yankees broke their own record of six years ago this month, when they signed former St. Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols to a eight-year $840 million contract.
Manager Alex Rodriguez, General Manager Derek Jeter and team owner George Steinbrenner, in their press conference today, announced that Strasburg, 28, a seven-season veteran, and Harper, 24, a six-season veteran, will be the core of many more championship Yankees squads for years to come.
While their contracts are exactly the same, their decision to join the Yankees will affect their lives in different ways. For instance, while Strasburg keeps a bald head and no facial hair, which already complies with Yankees players code of comportment, Harper will have to jettison the mohawk goatee he has sported for the last two seasons. Both will have to choose different numbers, for Harper’s 4 and Strasburg’s 37 are both retired numbers in Yankees lore, in honor of Lou Gehrig and Casey Stengell, respectively.
However, both will join an already star-studded roster. Strasburg will team up with veteran Yankee pitchers Tim Lincecum, Ubaldo Jiménez and David Price. And Harper’s fellow stars behind the battery are many — The Yankees outfield is already so replete with $70 million-plus yearly superstars that baseball analysts predict that the team will groom Harper to move to first base, to be able to replace the 36-year old Pujols, who is presumed to be retiring after next season.
Not everyone is greeting the news of major league baseball’s first billion dollar contract with glee. President Jan Brewer, who won re-election yesterday, announced that the Justice Department might explore revoking anti-trust exemptions for Major League Baseball, unless “the Diamondbacks get some of these good players.” Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh Pirates, who just completed their 24th losing season in a row, have a total team payroll that is so low that both Harper and Strasburg will make more in a month than all members of the Pirates made in the 2016 season. Lavish spending on the part of the Yankees is sure to dominate the conversation at the next owners’ winter meetings in San Diego, Republic of Aztlan, and this rich-poor dichotomy might affect the united front the owners want to put up during the next round of a collective bargaining agreement with the MLBPA after the 2019-2020 season.
While these were the MLB’s first $1 billion contracts, the first $1 billion equivalent contract in professional athletics occurred in 2012, when the Chelsea F.C. of the English Premier League of soccer gave American F Jozy Altidore a £590 million 16-year contract; the total amount translated to US$1bn using the exchange rates of the day.
Countenance Blog 