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Immediate reaction to Miguel Cabrera mega-deal is all about the Benjamins

Money makes the baseball word go around, and the Tigers just handed Miguel Cabrera a metric ton of it.

Kevin C. Cox

The Detroit Tigers agreeing to a monster contract extension with Miguel Cabrera for eight-years and $248 million caused jaws to hit the floor around the baseball world. In fact, the deal may be even larger than first reported.

When you break the dollar amounts down, the numbers are absolutely staggering.

Factor in the Tigers' commitment to Justin Verlander as well, and you may just as well be playing with Monopoly money.

The one player who should be thanking the Tigers and Cabrera at the moment is Mike Trout.

Regardless of the money involved, Cabrera's offensive numbers are just as staggering as his contract.

But not all of the reaction is about the money. The sabermetric types are taking the deal to task, believing it's too much money for too long for a player who will be too old at the end of the deal.

Neil Weinberg, New English D:

But an extension is about who he’s going to be going forward, not who he’s already been. Cabrera’s been worth 5 or more wins in 8 of the last 9 seasons and is on a four year streak of 6+ WAR seasons. If we figure you’d pay $6-7 million per WAR on the free agent market, Cabrera would have to be worth 42-49 WAR over the course of the deal to make it balance out.

And that’s not a great bet. Cabrera isn’t the kind of player that ages well defensively, but he’s already found the defensive floor. You don’t really care about anything but the value he will provide at the plate and as long as his body doesn’t break down, but that also puts a cap on the value he can add. If Cabrera ages pretty normally, you’re paying above market rate for a player who just spend the final two months of the season walking around like he’d been shot in the kneecaps.

Christina Kahrl, ESPN Sweetspot Blog:

Speaking of reason, have the Tigers completely taken leave of their senses? Aren’t they nuts for giving Miggy this much? Yes and no. Yes, Miguel Cabrera is clearly one of the most remarkable hitters in the history of the game, and as Dan Szymborski recently observed, he’s someone who could win the Triple Crown again. Who else are you or I going to live to say that about?

So yes, Cabrera is someone worth the price of admission if you’re buying a seat. For now. But paying that much money on a guy’s thirtysomething decade, potentially signing him through his 41st birthday or so? When he’s built that way and should only be playing first base (or DH) from here on out? Yeah, it’s probably also more than a little nuts.

Tigers fans may think differently a decade down the road, but the hearts of those same fans are currently thrilled Miguel Cabrera is not going anywhere. I'll let BYB's own have the last word.

Catherine Slonksnis, Bless You Boys:

While no one can predict what a baseball player can or will be accomplishing 10 years from now, in the end Cabrera will go down as one of the greatest players the game of baseball has ever known. He'll also be the richest. So enjoy it because you're watching history, and greatness in the making.