You are definitively wrong if you don't believe in paying for leadership in baseball

With the news that the Colorado Rockies are on the verge of signing Carlos Gonzalez to a one-year, $8 million contract, there has been a parade of diverse opinions.

Some couldn’t be happier to see a fan favorite and all-time great member of the franchise bring his signature smile and sweet swing back to the Mile High City.

Others are frustrated by a perceived lack of faith in young outfielders David Dahl and Raimel Tapia, who have shown a ton of promise in both the minors and MLB and—based solely on results from a season ago—may offer more on-field value than Gonzalez already. They see little chance for a rebound from CarGo, or at least one whose benefits would outweigh the gains made by getting the young guys regular playing time.

Though, here’s one quick reminder that he’s just 32-year-old.

Another faction seems oddly concerned with the contract details of a one-year deal. While the most reasonable among them admit that it has no bearing on the future, they can’t help but scoff at a franchise that appears more than willing to shell out big(ish) bucks for past performance and—ew—clubhouse chemistry.

It’s fair to argue that he should have to earn his way back into an everyday role, as we did on a recent BSN Rockies Podcast. It’s fair to be concerned about the effect this will have on the prospects or what another extended slump could do to the 2018 win total.

Here’s the thing, though. Arguing that you should never pay for experience and leadership—or clubhouse chemistry—is patently absurd and I can prove it to you.

This season, manager Bud Black will make more money than almost the entire pitching staff combined.

And I feel confident right now projecting that the Rockies’ manager will put up precisely zero WAR. Though, if he could pick up a few innings in relief, you better believe he’d be worth a few more million.

Sure, it’s a rare set of circumstances that has led to this situation and it is perhaps an example of how unfair the current CBA is to young, productive talent. But it’s also not entirely absurd. Black is being paid for his experience in the game and his ability to communicate that experience in a meaningful way to others.

If you could collect every single person who has ever played in baseball and get them all together, you couldn’t fill the average baseball stadium. That’s how few there are. And that’s including a decent number who unfortunately didn’t live to be 150 years old and so are no longer with us.

People with experience, let alone decades of the stuff, are rare birds indeed and thus, that experience comes with a price. This works on a scalable model. Carlos Gonzalez is a savvy baseball player in his own right and proved last year that he can be a positive force in the clubhouse and a mentor to younger players even in the midst of his most difficult times on the field.

Furthermore, this season will complete a full decade of roaming every position of arguably the trickiest outfield in baseball to patrol. He saved multiple runs in 2017 by using the high scoreboard in right field in order to deke runners into thinking he had a chance to make a catch. Little nuances like that can be passed down to Tapia, Dahl, Mike Tauchman, and Jordan Patterson as they begin their attempts to tackle the beast of Coors Field.

There is a reason coaches, scouts, and all manner of front-office personnel draw a salary.  Despite not providing any on-field value, each contributes to wins. Some GMs pull in numbers above the average for players, and that makes sense given the ultimate responsibilities of that job.

Last season, the Rockies paid $22 million to Jose Reyes… to play for the New York Mets.  This season, they will pay him an additional $4 million to officially be gone from their books.

And you know what? That was the right move. It was actually a better use of that money than keeping the player for which they would have gotten some on-field value all of which would have been negated by his mere presence in the clubhouse.

So, if you don’t like the CarGo signing because you believe he is well past his prime, blocking younger players with more potential to contribute on the diamond both now and in the future and his nightmarish season from a year ago cost you as many sleepless nights as it did him, that’s understandable.

But let’s not act like spending $8 million on another coach who also might hit 20 home runs is a completely ludicrous proposition.

Have you ever gone to school or worked at a job? Cool. Then you know the dramatic difference between spending all day around someone who wants to be there and someone who desperately doesn’t. CarGo’s tears after the All-Star game and his statement that the Rockies meant something to him as more than a baseball team, but as a family, made it absolutely clear how happy he will be to go to work in 2018.

The Colorado Rockies paying Carlos Gonzalez out of loyalty and an understanding of the leadership, and joy, is not an indictment of the organization but a tribute to their understanding of what it takes to win.