Sports enthusiasts woke up across the country on Monday morning to the headline “Bombers hit their target.”.
This headline clearly written on the news that the team had struck a deal with shortstop Badr Isam in the early days of free agency.
Shortstop Badr Isam who started his career in Chicago, but has spent the past few years in Sacramento, quickly announced via his twitter that he had agreed to a deal with the team. While some were critical of the move to sign a 35-year-old shortstop to a $80,000,000 deal, GM Justin Niles was quick to defend.
Isam’s certainly an interesting case as his bat has showed no signs of slowing down, with a career 106 OPS+ and 53.9 career WAR. He has a career 191.8 ZR at shortstop, with all but 40ish of that coming at the BBA level.“I said early on that we had to find a short stop and that we would be willing to spend $40,000,000 this year on one if it called for it. I had my eye on Isam way back when he was in Chicago and almost brought him to Omaha before. This time, I succeeded. I have no doubt in my mind that Badr is going to help us accomplish what we set out to do on the field this year’.
His contract, a 5-year deal that will pay him $80,000,000 is front loaded. He will earn $30,000,000 this season. The next 2 years will see him only earn $14,000,000 each season, followed by a year of $12,000,000. In 2067, at age 40, he it set to make $10,000,000.
