Jorge Posada Will Stay in Pinstripes

Jorge Posada is 35-years old. That's pretty old for a baseball player and especially old for a catcher. He is, however, coming off of a career year where he hit .338/.426/.523 (career highs in all three categories). That was apparently enough for the Yankees to give him a new contract worth $52.4 million over the next four years. That's $13.1 million per season, more than any catcher in the game.

I don't think I need to tell you this, but this is mildly crazy. Posada will be thirty-nine when this contract ends. Check out the players most comparable to his career so far at Baseball-Reference. Of the catchers in that group, Carlton Fisk was productive after the age of 39, but Gabby Hartnett wasn't (though he was good up to that year) and Javy Lopez and Roy Campanella's careers ended at the age Posada is now. This is an insane amount of money to be throwing at a guy that will probably be a below average DH by the time it ends.

And yet, they're the Yankees. What were they going to do, sign Paul LoDuca? Maybe cash in on the impending Pirates' fire sale and trade for Ronny Paulino (if you call picking up Ronny Paulino cashing in, that is)? They need a catcher, Jorge Posada is probably the best available, and so they're paying him to play now and they'll deal with the money later, just like the Johnny Damon contract and the Jason Giambi contract and the impending Mariano Rivera contract. You'd think I'd be used to it by now, but I guess I'm not.