It's also possible that Mike signed a front-weighted deal and made more than $16mil in previous seasons. I think what's really interesting is that if Mike has been playing major league ball for 15 years, he's gone through free agency *at least* once. So he personally picked the Padres over singing with any team that made him an offer (and since he seemed to be a perennial All-Star, that list must have included teams like the Dodgers and Yankees)--he was definitely committed to San Diego.
For sure! I didn’t think of that at all, but a front-weighted deal absolutely makes sense. (I got the impression that what Oscar/the FO had on the board was whatever was still owed to the player; it seemed like they were using those numbers to basically balance their ledgers as they traded guys around? Then again, I straight up do not understand a lot about the way MLB contracts work.)
You make an excellent point about free agency, too. There are so few players who play for one club their whole career, especially when that career’s as long as Mike’s, but for whatever reason, that’s the route he’s taken. The fact that he chose to stay with San Diego, even before he and Rachel fell apart (although possibly also before he ever met Rachel), says a lot about his dedication to the team (or possibly the town itself?). Especially when it’s clear that the Padres haven’t been contenders in a long time; there were probably no shortages of opportunities for him to go get his ring with any number of teams. Even if Mike agreed to a long contract renewal before he actually hit free agency when it was first due, he’s probably hit it again by now and still chose to stay with the Padres.
I/you/we could speculate all day long about the why of it, but we’ll never know. Because Fox is filled with soulless number crunchers who hate baseball and good tv and joy.
