Brian McCann needs an extension-soon
If this doesn’t scare you as a Braves fan than I’m not sure what can:
"@Ken_Rosenthal: Molina average salary of $14M-$15M in new deal with #STLCards would be second-highest ever for catcher behind Mauer at $23M. #MLB"
If you haven’t seen my rant on Brian McCann you might need to read it for some context on what this means. If Yadier Molina is going to get a deal in the range of $14-$15 million EACH year then McCann’s price tag just went up, and I wouldn’t be surprised if its pushing $20 mil per year.
Apparently we have around $30-$40 million to spend next off season but after Fred’s writing I am skeptical of how much we will actually be spending. So McCann is either going to pull a Chipper/Hudson and give the Braves a discount, or we are going to have to put a lot more faith in Christian Bethancourt.
McCann has 2012 left on his contract for $11 million after he maxed it out with performance and award clauses. After that, he has a club option for 2013 for $12 million (I am not sure if the option can be increased based on performance). I hope we don’t have to use the option because if we do it is likely because McCann didn’t want to sign long term to a decent deal with the Braves. If Frank Wren feels like Mac is going to go for the money whenever he can, you can bet the team option will be exercised.
The biggest goal for the Braves next off season (or during this season if he will negotiate) is signing their backstop to a long term deal. I want to believe that McCann is the kind of guy who would take a discount for the Braves. He signed immediately in 06 when the Braves took a pretty large financial investment in him (how are ya Frenchy?) but that doesn’t mean he will do it again when he is in the best position ever to get a huge deal.
Their will be a LOT of teams interested in McCann and just like with Pujols and Fielder this year, American League teams will be more willing to give out a long term contract. We have our own mini Albert Pujols situation on our hands now and I don’t feel like trashing my McCann shirt anytime soon. So as that bald guy says, “Let’s make a deal.” At least I think he said that, I haven’t seen Deal or No Deal in a long time.
I am going to leave you with some foreshadowing McCann tweets:
"@Chris_Carelli: If Molina’s contract is indeed 5 yrs. $70-75 million McCann, Napoli and M. Montero are really happy too! They get theirs next!"
"@joe_sheehan: Brian McCann made a lot of money tonight."
"@Ben_Duronio: Really interested to see what McCann eventually ends up getting."