“I want people to understand one thing. The money they gave me wasn’t for what I’m going to do. It was for what I already did,” Guerrero told Batista. “They didn’t pay me because I’m going to hit 40 [home runs] every year. They paid me for what I already accomplished.”
Uh, no, Vlad. Or rather, “No, you idiot.” Athletes are no different in this respect than any other employee in any other field. Past performance is taken into consideration in assessing what an individual’s future performance is worth to his or her employers going forward, but a contract is definitely an exchange of benefits for services to be rendered in the future.
Toronto paid that $500 million to Guerrero so he wouldn’t leave the Jays and sign with another team as a free agent when his previous contract expired. Does he really think that another team would be paying him millions in compensation for what he already had done for the Blue Jays?
The amounts in multi-year contracts are obviously affected by what the player has done in the past, just as the academic record and other achievements of a star graduate student hired by a Fortune 500 company will affect his or her starting salary. But to say that a salary doesn’t reflect the value an employee is is expected to add to an organization in the period covered by the contract is either a dishonest attempt to excuse failure or evidence of a dumb jock who shouldn’t be allowed to talk to the news media without a chaperone.
Not surprisingly, Guerrero’s comments are being flamed on social media, but Vlad is digging in. “No, I don’t regret myself. I’m not lying with what I say,” Guerrero said in response. “I understand some fans, they don’t understand the way and what I was trying to say specifically, but what I said is the way I feel.”
Oh! No wonder you stink this year: you think you’re playing for free, and will be until 2039.
“they paid me [$500,000,000] for what I did, not what I am going to do”
This sounds like dumb and dumber. But hey, maybe Guerrero has CTE. Has he every had a concussion from getting hit in the head by a fastball?
I agree with aunt bea. Proffessional sports salaries have long been the proximate cause for the reality that the common man, woman and child can no longer enjoy what once were benign diversions.
Professional, and now college, sports are the goods of an elite few. These salaries produce egos that develop into megalomania.
I tried to find out who Vlad’s agent is. He evidently doesn’t have one, nor does he have any PR management. Sounds as if he and his dad saved ten percent of his deal by doing it themselves. Hence the unfiltered blather.
Oh well. Think how much he has to pay in income taxes to Canada, Ontario, Toronto, and every U.S. state he plays an away game in. And aren’t those Canadian dollars, eh?
And for extra, added benefit, there’s his first name! A ridiculous vestige of the height of Cuba’s Soviet era, particularly considering the name of the current Russian strongman. Hah!
A very rough calculation drops the $500M CAD to
$232 CAD after federal and provincial taxes.
Roughly 35% federal US tax rate takes the $232 to $146.
Vlad is getting fleeced. That’s a 70% total tax burden.
Couldn’t he arrange a compensation scheme where he only gets paid 1$ to play in US games?
His comments provide the reason why he doesn’t have an agent. Repping guys like this is a nightmare.
If somebody who has always been a stellar employee does not fit anymore in the plans of the business (e.g. new technology makes his skills obsolete) he risks having his position being made redundant. Loyalty based on past performance does not exist in business today; what matters is how you will contribute to the bottom line next year. That is how it works in business, and as pro sports is a business this also applies there.
Is pro sports entirely a free market driven, capitalism at is best and purest? My impression is “No” given that new stadiums are often financed with tax payer money. True capitalism does not need corporate welfare.
Baseball used to be the national pastime, where entire families could enjoy a ballgame during the weekend. Visiting a baseball game is now priced out of reach of many working families. Given all the corporate welfare of pro sports and the abject greed behind those obscene salaries I think we should resent that.
One slight correction: He was never with the Angels (although his dad was). The Jays signed Vlad Jr. as an international free agent and he’s never been with another MLB organization.
Ugh. Sorry: I was confused by a photo of his father. Fixed.