Jason Heyward Ushers in a New Era in Free Agency

Jason Heyward is a unique baseball player. He came up very young, and reached free agency by the time he was 26, this off-season. He made a ton of money in free agency too, despite never hitting 30 homers, not being a .300 hitter, and never driving in or scoring 100 runs. His career-high OPS is .849. Baseball reference projects a .277/.352/.419/.771 slash line, with 13 homers and 15 stolen bases in 2016 for the Chicago Cubs. Heyward landed an eight year, $184 million deal to play for the Chicago Cubs though. He did so in large part because he's an elite defensive player. That elite defense and being a slightly above average hitter makes Heyward a sabermetric-lover's wet-dream of a player. In 2015, being a sabermetric-stud means more than belting 30 homers- just look at the difference between Heyward's situation and Chris Davis'. And to think that Heyward turned down several larger offers...

Get used to this. There are more and more Ivy League statisticians and MBA's landing jobs in MLB front-offices than there are ex-players at this point. Everyone wants to hire the next Billy Beane, even though Beane's teams have had zero post-season success in his long run in Oakland. If you're not an "advanced stats" guru, you will increasingly find yourself scratching your head at $23 million annual value deals to .277 hitters with 13 homers, or Chase Utley still getting $7 million a year entering his late 30s off of his worst year ever, because the advanced metrics say he wasn't that bad. Owners rightly don't want to get caught in bad contracts, and advanced metrics help them avoid that. It also makes a player like Heyward, who's skill set isn't homers and high batting averages, into a much better buy than fans and even old-time players think he is.

Again, i'm not saying guys like Davis or Miguel Cabrera, that put up eye-popping "old school" numbers aren't going to get paid well- they will. I'm saying that the number of Ivy League stat guys running front offices now will change free agency, and create a lot more demand for players like Heyward. Does his deal seem ridiculous to me? Yes. Can they justify it? Absolutely. And so, we're going to have a new norm here.