Our long nightmare is over … before it really started. Because if Matt Cain entered the season without an extension, this story (and the Dodgers’ place in it) would get old really fast.
I just received an email from the Giants announcing that the report is true:
The San Francisco Giants and Matt Cain have reached an agreement on a five year extension through 2017 with a club/vesting player option for 2018, club Senior Vice President and General Manager Brian Sabean announced today. Per club policy, financial terms were not disclosed.
Is the money (Ken Rosenthal reports: “Cain’s new deal replaces old one. Six yrs, $127.5M with vesting player opt for ’18 that can bring total to $141M over seven. Full no-trade.”) ridiculous? Sure, but most of us would rather Cain got it than have it spread amongst the Giants’ ownership group. Also, compared to other elite pitchers, this type of deal is the going rate.
The Giants pretty much forced themselves to get this done before Opening Day after effectively telling everyone that keeping the pitching staff together was their highest priority. Plus, Cain will be only 31 during the last year of this deal and improves every year, so the chances of this contract turning into a Zito-esque albatross would seem remote — barring injury, of course.
(Knock knock knock on that wood.)
It’ll be interesting to see Cain’s attitude going forward. He’s pitched lights-out during Spring Training, but his postgame quotes were emotionless (sorry, “professional”). He’ll probably seem a lot more relaxed going forward, sort of like Tim Lincecum during Media Day after signing his 2-year, $40.5 million extension.
