MILWAUKEE • The skyrocketing cost of a superstar first baseman has yielded three record contracts since December, each worth more than $200 million, and has again revealed a free-agent marketplace truism: Timing is everything.
Ask Lance Berkman.
"If I could go back in time, I would have explored free agency earlier in my career," Berkman said. "The one smart thing I think these guys are doing now is they're forcing teams to pay them now until they're 40. My biggest problem was I was a free agent when I was 34. Teams are automatically looking to discount you because of your age.
"I could have signed a deal that would take care of me in my old age," he quipped.
The Cardinals visit Cincinnati this evening for the first time this season and the first time since Reds first baseman Joey Votto joined the Powerball club with his $225 million extension. His total 12-year deal guarantees him $251.5 million and puts him in the class with Prince Fielder (nine years, $214 million) and Albert Pujols (10 years, $240 million). Votto hit his jackpot without reaching free agency, but his price doesn't soar without Pujols pushing the market as a free agent and Fielder following a month later with his contract.
Votto, a former league MVP, has hit .312 and slugged .550 with a .957 OPS, 115 homers and 384 RBIs in the past four seasons, from age 24 to 27. From age 25 to 28, Berkman hit .307 with a .571 slugging percentage, a .995 OPS, 131 homers, and 451 RBIs. That next spring he signed a six-year, $85 million deal to remain in Houston.
Times have changed.
"I felt really good last year about making $8 million," said Berkman, who was coming off a knee injury. "Even though I gave the production of a $20-million-a-year player, I didn't know what I had. I wouldn't want that kind of burden hanging over my head â€" I've got to produce at that level for 10 years to justify an organization putting $20 million-plus a year on me?"
Berkman signed a one-year deal with the Cardinals for this season, at a raise to $12 million. He agreed that the spike in salaries has altered the landscape for all middle-order hitters, and Berkman said if he's able to duplicate last year's production â€" putting him seventh in MVP voting â€" he could see pursuing a two-year deal to finish out his career.
He just missed that not being a question by a few years.
"How about the old guys sitting around saying, 'I can't believe what Berkman makes?'" he said. "Every generation the salaries continue to escalate, especially for guys who hit in the middle of the order. They are a pretty rare commodity."
STRENGTH WILL COME
Twelve months and one spring training removed from elbow surgery, Adam Wainwright said his arm recovered well from throwing 88 pitches in his first major-league game in more than 560 days. He also acknowledged what the Brewers and the radar gun saw: a pitcher who was operating with less velocity than before surgery.
"His velocity, I'm sure, is going to go up, but even where he was at he was really effective," Milwaukee outfielder Corey Hart said.
Wainwright was able to hit 93 and 94 mph during his early starts of spring training, but as the innings mounted in March and he reached his first April start the fastball had settled in at 89 to 90 mph. He averaged 89 mph on Saturday.
That zip will return with time, Wainwright said.
"I think it's an ongoing process," he said. "... Early on in spring I was throwing quite a bit harder and I had more life on the ball. As my arm gets strong as we go here, it will come."
EXTRA BASES
Third baseman David Freese is the first Cardinal to have at least two hits in each of the first three games of a season since Edgar Renteria in 2003. Freese was already the first Cardinal with at least two RBIs in the first two games since Mark McGwire in 1998. ... Manager Mike Matheny planned to give catcher Yadier Molina a day off Sunday before using him the seventh inning as part of a double switch.
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