Philly Front Office

On December 12th, 1998, Kevin Brown became the first $100m man in baseball history when he signed for 7/$105m ($15m per season) with the Dodgers. Brown was 34 years old and coming off a great season with the Padres where he finished 3rd in Cy Young voting. Over the life of the contract, Brown had a couple of nice seasons, but would never match that year in San Diego. This isn’t about Brown, it’s about the guy who signed a shorter, smaller contract two days before him.

Friday, April 10 at 6:40p – Jesus Luzardo vs Mike Soroka (R)
Saturday, April 11 at 1:05p – Taijuan Walker vs Brandon Pfaadt (R)
Sunday, April 12 at 1:35p – Andrew Painter vs Zac Gallen (R)

at Citizen’s Bank Park – Philadelphia, PA

On December 10th, 1998, the fledgling Arizona Diamondbacks signed free agent Randy Johnson to a 4/$52m contract ($13m per season) at age 35. Johnson finished 7th in Cy Young voting that year, but that’s deceiving. Mid-season he was traded from the Mariners to the Astros and proceeded to absolutely SHOVE. He went 10-1 over the final two months with a 1.28 ERA, four shutouts, and 116 strikeouts in 84 innings. That 7th place finish was only for his time in Houston, not Seattle.

Best Trades in Phillies History

So why did Brown get more than double the contract of the Big Unit? Well, both went to the playoffs that year, and wouldn’t you know it, Brown faced Johnson in Game 1. Both went 8 innings in the Padres 2-1 win, but Brown fanned 16 Astros and gave up only 2 hits. Johnson gave up 2 runs. Brown would come back early and win Game 3 while Johnson would lose Game 4 despite giving up only 1 earned run. That’s what the Dodgers were paying for.¹

Arizona only started playing Major League Baseball in 1998 and they lost 97 games. It was from that start that they simply said, “Fuck It” and went after Johnson. Behind great seasons from Luis Gonzalez, Jay Bell, and Matt Williams plus the addition of Randy Johnson, the Diamondbacks won 100 games, still the most in franchise history. How did Johnson do? Just your regular ho-hum season of 9.1 WAR, 271 innings, a 2.48 ERA, and 364 strikeouts to win his 2nd Cy Young Award. Sadly, Johnson would give up 7 runs to the Mets in Game 1 of the NLDS and Arizona would lose 3 games to 1.

Johnson followed up his Cy Young season with another, going 19-7 with a 2.64 ERA, 8.1 WAR, 248 innings, and 347 strikeouts. Brown would lead the NL in ERA that year, but couldn’t touch that gaudy strikeout total. Neither the Diamondbacks nor the Dodgers would make the playoffs that year. However, it isn’t like the Diamondbacks didn’t try. This was the season they traded for Phillies ace Curt Schilling. While both pitchers put on a show down the stretch, they simply did not have enough hitting to contend.

In 2001, it all came together. Luis Gonzalez finished 3rd in MVP voting with 57 HRs (this was the Bonds 73 dinger year) and Schilling finished runner up in Cy voting with 8.8 WAR, 22 wins, and a 2.98 ERA. As for Randy? 21-6 with a 2.49 ERA in 249 innings with 372 strikeouts, good for a 10.1 WAR and his 3rd straight Cy Young Award. That wasn’t even the best part. In the playoffs, Johnson made 5 starts and pitched to a 1.52 ERA including a legendary 4 out save to close down Game 7 allowing Gonzalez to walk off the Yankees against Mariano Rivera in maybe the greatest World Series I ever saw. Schilling and Johnson were named World Series co-MVPs.

Worst Trades in Phillies History

As if that wasn’t enough, at 38 years old, he came back in 2002 to win his 4th straight Cy Young with his best season of the bunch. His 10.7 WAR was made up of a 24-5 record, 2.32 ERA, 4 shutouts, 260 innings, and 334 strikeouts. Schilling would finish runner up for the reward again, but the duo could not duplicate their World Series heroics from the previous year.

Johnson would go on to pitch 2 more seasons in Arizona before being traded to the Yankees. As for that initial 4-year contract though, here were his pitching totals, all of which were tops in at least the NL

WAR	Record	ERA	CGs	Innings	Strikeouts
38.1	81-27	2.48	31	1030	1417

Plus 4 Cy Young awards in 4 seasons and a World Series MVP to go with it. Sweet Mercy. I didn’t go through all of the records to compare War to contract dollars or anything like that. Simply, how could anyone have ever signed a contract with better production that THAT!

Stats: Baseball Reference

Photo: Amy E. Cohn AP

1. Brown’s Padres would go on to lose the World Series to the Yankees ↩︎