Ben Sheets' Contract

The Milwaukee Brewers and Ben Sheets agreed on a one-year contract for 2005 worth $6 million. The amount was reached one day before both sides were scheduled for a salary arbitration hearing in Tampa on Monday. The $6 million figure is a compromise from both sides in that they met directly in the middle of each side's salary arbitration offer. In my opinion, there was no reason why each side couldn't have just agreed on this amount after they exchanged figures back in December. It would have saved a lot of time and hassle.

On a related note, the Twins' Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana, the closest rival to Sheets in terms of age, makeup, potential, and salary, signed a four-year contract extension for $40 million, thus buying out his last two years of arbitration. This news would appear to be excellent news for Brewers management and their fans. With all the crazy off-season signings of mediocre pitchers, at best, for multimillion dollar contracts (Kris Benson, Eric Milton, Russ Ortiz, Derek Lowe, and Jon Lieber), it wouldn't have been impossible to see Sheets command an annual salary of over $15 million a year if he performed as he did last season. At that price, it would have been very difficult for the Brewers to commit such a huge portion of their future salary to just one player, even if he is a Cy Young candidate. But now it would appear that he would come at a lower price if he chose to re-sign with the Crew by signing an extension. Something along the lines of a four year deal worth 9 - 11 million per year would be a similar offer.