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KRIEGER: Holliday’s deal a good sign

By Dave Krieger, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published January 19, 2008 at 2:41 a.m.

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Friday's agreement between Matt Holliday and the Rockies on a two-year, $23 million deal is good news for both sides and increases the chances, however marginally, that they will find common ground on a longer deal.

Just as important as Holliday's new deal, there is a good chance the Rocks will soon do a six-year deal, with a club option for a seventh year, with precocious shortstop Troy Tulowitzki. This is even better news, not only for Tulowitzki and the Rocks, but also for the chances of keeping Holliday around.

Because, let's be honest, if you had to pick one member of the Rockies organization to be in Holliday's ear about staying, Tulo would be the guy.

And the Tulo deal, assuming it comes to fruition, will represent the second commitment by a young star beyond the year he becomes eligible for free agency. The club option year on Jeff Francis' deal takes him one year past his initial eligibility.

Tulo's would take him two years past. That's a significant statement to the rest of the clubhouse.

As the only Type A personality among the Rocks' stars, Tulowitzki took on a leadership role as a rookie. If he announces through his contract that he intends to stick around, that will give the organization more credibility than anything management can do or say.

The other encouraging development here is that the two-year deal for Holliday, which will pay him $9.5 million this season and $13.5 million next season, suggests that Holliday has taken an active role in this process.

Had it been left up to Scott Boras, his agent, I'm assuming he would have gone year to year until Holliday became a free agent after the 2009 season. That would have allowed Boras to use the leverage of arbitration each year. It also would have allowed him to sow seeds of discontent in Holliday because the Rocks would have been required to justify their position in arbitration by downplaying his achievements. The arbitration process often drives a wedge between team and player.

This is also Boras' specialty. But in an unexpected shot of good news for baseball, two players forcefully rejected his wedge-driving attempts this offseason. Alex Rodriguez and Kenny Rogers both went around Boras to make deals with their existing teams.

It would be folly to suggest Boras was humbled by these developments. But Holliday is a smart guy. What he has done by agreeing to the two-year deal is leave the door open to further talks with the Rocks.

If Boras is in charge of those talks, I assume he's seeking an A-Rod deal, meaning 10 years or something close to it. The Rocks simply aren't doing that, and for good reason.

Seven years ago, as you may recall, they tacked a nine-year, $141.5 million extension onto the two years Todd Helton still had on his contract, giving him an aggregate package of $151.5 million over 11 years.

Helton is Mr. Rockie and an asset to the organization in many ways. But, at 34, he is not a $16.6 million-a-year player, which is what he will make this year, next year and the year after that, before making $19.1 million the year he turns 38.

Holliday just turned 28. An A-Rod-length deal would take him to about the same point. The Rocks do not intend to make the same mistake again.

This is why the NBA has installed limits on contract length, to prevent teams from making ridiculous, fully guaranteed commitments simply to stave off the competition. But then, the NBA has one of the best commissioners in sports and baseball has . . . well . . . you know.

Even if it costs them a wonderful player like Holliday, the Rocks are right about this. Before the NBA implemented its term limits, many teams were paying eight-figure salaries to players that could no longer play. It not only hurt those organizations, it hurt the league. So much money was going to people who weren't playing, some teams struggled to field competitive teams.

Still, the Rocks are willing to go seven years in the case of the 23-year-old Tulo- witzki, a fact Boras will no doubt bring up once or twice.

Adding an extension of four or five years to the deal they just did with Holliday would take him to 34 or 35 and give him some pretty serious financial security.

At an average between $18 million and $20 million a year, which is probably the range of his free agency market value given Alfonso Soriano's $17 million-a-year deal with the Cubs last year, that would put the package - the two-year deal plus the extension - at or above $100 million.

If it is true that Holliday likes living in Colorado, likes his teammates and is not driven by the last dollar, this might be good enough. If, on the other hand, it is up to Boras and his visions of A-Rod II, it most certainly won't be.

It is Holliday's call, as it always has been. The encouraging aspect of his two-year deal is the signal it sends that he, not Boras, is actually making the call. Assuming that continues to be the case, the saga will end as it should, whichever way it turns out.