Brooks Returns, Fumbled the "C"
It's been one of the most drawn out storylines of the year in Twin Cities. Erik Brooks was a pending free agent who would not budge on wanting a 5 year $12.5 million extension. The team steadfast at either wanting less years or less money. In the end, Erik Brooks emerged as the winner. The final contract being 5 years with an AAV of $11.8 mil.
There were some concessions made by Brooks to make the team feel like they won. He dropped his demands by $700k per diem. As well as there being an opt out after the first two seasons of $10.6 million. So if this ends up being a 2 year $20.2 million pact... I'd say Twin Cities wins. If Brooks opts in, it likely means he is regressing and that last 3 years and $37.8 million could sting.
So why did the River Monsters concede defeat? They have a lot of star players on league minimum deals and several other role players on bargain deal. It's a perfect time for going "all in". And that is exactly what the team has been doing. If Brooks left, that would leave a big hole in an already shaky rotation. In looking at the free agent class, outside of rolling the dice on the health and wealth of David Molina... Any pitcher that they brought in would be roughly the same price and skill level as Erik Brooks. And that is the best case scenario. Seeing how things played out, the River Monsters would likely have been left with their dick in their hand after most of the top pitchers came off the board in FA1. Meaning they may have had to give a lesser pitcher even more money then Brooks got just to save face.
Following the signing the team approached Brooks about being team captain. River Monster GM Alan Ehlers is a big advocate against using PP for unnatural things. I could be wrong, but I don't think he's ever used PP on personality traits. But it felt natural enough here. The veteran player who has only played for one team, signing a contract extension to end his career there being named team captain. It just felt right. But we fumbled the ball and it ended up not working. Oh well, maybe we can turn it into an ongoing story where Brooks acts like he thinks he's the captain.
