What does a 5 year/$85million deal mean for a 28 year-old right hander with one year left of salary arbitration and a career FIP of .360? Well it means many things:

The first thing to consider is now the Angels have protected themselves from having to deal with a bidding war with the Yankees, Red Sox, or Phillies, when Weaver would have become a free agent, possibly driving up his price, but also now they must hope that Weaver will be worth $17 million a year each season from when he’s 29-33.

The Angels have to hope that this deal does not come back to haunt them, like those of overpaying both Torii Hunter and Gary Matthews Jr., as well as, trading for Vernon Wells. One could say that Weaver is more established and has more upside at this time then those players did when the moves were made for them, but I would like to take a closer look.

I’ll first take a look at what Weaver has been worth/paid over his career and what he should be paid. Jered Weaver made the major league minimum ($400k) at the start of career before beginning , before reaching arbitration in 2010 (4.265 million) and last season making 7.4 million dollars. According to fangraphs.com’s evaluation of value for a player, Weaver has been immensely valuable to the Angels over his career:

Season Salary Value Difference

2006 385k 9.6 million 9.2 million

2007 385k 12.5 million 12.1 millon

2008 435k 15.2 million 14.9 million

2009 465k 17.4 million 16.8 million

2010 4.2mil. 23.5 million 19.3 million

2011 7.3 mil. 23.5 million 16.2 million

Total 13.17 mil. 101.7 mil. 88.53 million

Note that Weaver’s 23.5 million dollar value this season is so far, and will be higher at the close of the season.

By looking at this table, it is apparent that Jered Weaver has already made the Angels over 85 million dollars in his career with them ($88.53 million), so one could make a point that even with zero production over the next 5 years the Angels would still have made money off their talented right hander; however, baseball teams are supposed to make money off of players during their seasons before free agency. Also, it would be horrible business for the Angels to lose money on this $85 million dollar investment, so the question is will Weaver be worth $17 million over the next 5 seasons, and also did they overpay for his services.

Over each of Weaver’s last 3 seasons his value has been over $17 million, with an average FIP of 3.31 and WAR of 5.3 in those seasons. He is currently, this season, 6^th among pitchers with a 5.2 WAR and 10^th in FIP (2.85), thus, he is a legitimate top 10 pitcher, who will be only 33 at the end of this contract. It looks as though Weaver will be worth $17 million in each of the next five seasons. Over his career, Weaver’s value per season on average has been $16.95 dollars exactly, and that includes a rookie season with only 19 starts, as well as, his 2011 campaign has yet to be concluded. Thus, it projects out that Weaver does have to potential to be worth his $85 million monster extension.

The Angels will be paying Weaver 4 million more dollars next season then they have in total over his entire career of six major league seasons (excluding his signing bonus after being drafted). So it seems like they may have overpaid for him, but to see if they did we’ll look at the contracts of the 5 pitchers with higher WAR’s than Weaver this season, as well as, two young aces who signed similar extensions last season. Of the five pitchers ahead of Weaver two are making more than $17 million a year; Roy Halladay ($20 million) and C.C. Sabathia ($24.6 million).Clayton Kershaw, Justin Verlander, and Dan Haren make less than 17 million, Kershaw makes $500k, but has never been eligible for arbitration, Verlander is raking in 13 million and Haren makes 12.75 million dollars which is well under his value (which I am sure the Angels are not complaining about). Only 6 pitchers in baseball this make $17 million dollars or more this season, which would mean Weaver would have to be around a top 5 pitcher each season for the Angels not to have overpaid.

Many comparisons have been made this season between Justin Verlander and Jered Weaver, because they have been racing for the A.L. Cy Young award. Last season, Verlander signed a similar extension with Detroit, and Seattle’s youthful ace Felix Hernandez did the same. Felix’s deal was slightly less than Weaver’s at 5 years/$78 million, or $1.4 million dollars per season, and Verlander’s about the same as Felix’s at 5 years/$80 million, or $1 million dollars per season. Thus, Verlander and Hernandez have almost the same contracts as Weaver, so the question is if Weaver is as good as those two aces. Felix was only 24 when he signed his contract, which means he will be the same age at the end of his contract as Weaver will be at the beginning of his. So one would possibly say that Felix’s age and potential for less money makes Weaver overpaid, but Weaver has the same amount of career starts (mileage) as the King of Seattle at the time of his deal. Over his three seasons before his contract extension, Felix’s average FIP was 3.43 or .12 higher than Weaver’s, also Felix has never posted a FIP of below 3.04 in his career, Weaver’s sits at 2.85 this season. Felix posted a WAR of 6.8 and 6.2, the season’s before his contract extension, which are higher than any WAR in Weaver’s career, but Weaver’s WAR is 1 higher than that of Hernandez this season.

Verlander was 27 when he signed his 5 year deal, and had just 7 starts less than that of Weaver and Hernandez. In the three seasons before his contract extension Verlander averaged the exact same FIP as Weaver. In 2009 Verlander had a ridiculous WAR of 8.3, something that Weaver has never come close to matching. Also Verlander’s value this season is already at $28 million, which is much higher than that of what he is being paid. So maybe the Angels feel as though Weaver is as talented as Verlander, or Scott Boras necessitated that Weaver needed to be paid as much as him, but they will have to hope he stays as good as Felix and become as valuable as Verlander over the next five seasons.

Signing Weaver to an extension that is a mirror image of those that went to Verlander and Hernandez seems like the right idea, because the Angels avoided what would have happened if Weaver had won his arbitration case after this season and gone fishing for deals with Boras after 2012. Weaver’s 2011 numbers are very similar to that of Tim Lincecum in 2010, who won his arbitration case and made 14 million dollars this season. The details of Weaver’s contract are not yet released, which is to say we do not know how much he’ll make in 2012, as apposed to other seasons, but let’s just say he makes $14 million in 2012 and $71 million over the next four years, which seems plausible (Verlander making $12.85 in 2011 67.15 next 4). So with this new contract extension, Weaver will make exactly the same next season as he would, if he had not signed it. Thus, where the judgment will lie for this contract will be in the 4 year/$71 million aspect starting in 2013, in comparison to the deal Weaver would have received on the open market with Boras as his agent.

The Angels had an ace in 2009, who became a free agent at the age of 31 named John Lackey. In the three seasons, leading up to becoming a free agent, Lackey posted an average FIP of 3.93 and WAR of 3.83. He also showed injury potential, while missing 9 starts two years before the deal, and 6 starts in ’09. Weaver (someone knock on wood quick) has never missed a major league start because of injury. When Lackey became a free agent in 2009 he signed a deal with the Boston Red Sox for 5 years/$82.5 million dollars (with a 6^th year option). Lackey received almost the same exact contract as Weaver, when Weaver would have been 2 years younger with better numbers, and no injury history when he hit the market, with an agent in Scott Boras who would be looking for a lot more money than Lackey’s agent had. To give a ballpark estimate of the free agent contract Jered Weaver would have signed, if he had another strong season in 2012, I would say around 6 years/$115 million dollars. That is on average over $2 million more per season than Weaver will be making, and would sign him for the seasons when he is 34 and 35, in which most likely he will not have a value nearly that high.

There will be many arguments made about whether or not the Angels made the right move in giving Weaver this contract extension, many will say he’s simply not as talented as Verlander or Hernandez, and should not have the same deal as them. But after laying at all the facts, it seems as though if Jered can stay healthy and continue at this pace (those are both big if’s however) then Angels’ GM Tony Reagins may have made the right move this time in locking up his ace starter, instead of allowing Boras another shark testing the water in the winter of 2012.