[ReynardMuldrake]

Originally Posted by Lex Luthor

You really don't understand the difference in local television contracts, do you?

They Royals local TV deal with Fox Sports pays them $20 million per year, and it's an ironclad contract that lasts through the 2019 season. The Los Angeles Dodgers get $250 million per year from their TV contract. That's why the Royals have to be very careful about how they spend their money. It's not a matter of being ****ing cheap. When one team has an extra $230 million every ****ing year, they are the ones who will sign the expensive free agents. Alex Gordon is an expensive free agent who is 35 years old.

After 2019 it will be a much more level playing field, because the Royals will get a better local TV deal. It won't come close to what the Dodgers get, but it will hopefully be close to the deal the Cardinals just signed: $1 Billion over 15 years, with $50 million the first year and escalations every year. But Moustakas, Hosmer, Cain, Escobar and Davis aren't going to wait until 2019 to get paid. They all become free agents after the 2017 season.

And even if the Royals get a sweetheart deal that exactly matches the Cardinals' deal, that's still $180 million LESS than what Dodgers get. Every year.

That's why it makes perfect sense for the Royals to refuse to break the bank for a 35 year old Alex Gordon. If they do, they have $100 million LESS to try to retain their younger free agents after 2017. They'll be competing with teams like the Dodgers to sign Hosmer and Moustakas. The Royals will never outbid the Dodgers, but I'd like to see them have enough free money to at least offer them enough money to make them consider staying at a hometown discount.

If Alex Gordon were to give the team a hometown discount and come back for 4 years at $60 million, and the Royals were to manage to make it to a 3rd World Series, THAT would set a helluva precedent.

Yup. I love Gordon but we have to be cheap bastards if we want to stay competitive. If we want to keep winning, it's going to be because Dayton finds some more diamonds in the scrap pile, not because of our ability to resign premium players.