Why It Got Harder To Re-Sign Zack Greinke Today

Today’s free agent signing isn’t going to help the Angels try and re-sign Zack Greinke. The Kansas City Royals signed Jeremy Guthrie to a three year $25 million contract. It’s extremely back-loaded, with $20 million of the $25 million coming in 2014 and 2015. Guthrie’s career ERA is 4.21. His highest K/9 in a season was 6.3, his first year as a starter. He’s also going to be 34 years old this year.

September 9, 2012; Anaheim, CA, USA; Los Angeles Angels starting pitcher Zack Greinke (23) pitches in the fourth inning against the Detroit Tigers at Angel Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-US PRESSWIRE

If you’re Greinke’s agent, you price tag for your client just went up a little bit. He just turned 29. He won the Cy Young Award at 25. He’s won over 15 games in three of the past four years. Jeremy Guthrie has finished above .500 one time as a starter in his entire career.

There’s a ton of talk around the game how there is a ton of money going around the industry right now. That may be why Melky Cabrera got $16 million for two years and explains Guthrie’s deal as well. A lot of teams are getting new television deals as well, on top of the new national broadcast deal that MLB signed with its broadcasting partners.

This contract probably helps the Dodgers if they are indeed interested in adding Zack Greinke, since it appears that they don’t care about the $189 million luxury tax threshold coming up next year. You may see more contracts that as fan you look and be surprised at what they got. That’s the way the market is right now. For the Angels, they may lose out on re-signing an important part of their future moving forward.