On The Giants’ Matt Cain And Contract Leverage

Matt Cain wants to stay in San Francisco. He does. He really, really, does. But gosh darnnit – those silly Giants just wont give him the contract he deserves! Why must they be so arrogant? Don’t they know how bad Matt wants to be a Giant? How much he’s given to the city – the community. How much more he’ll do! If only the Giants would give him his fair shake. But I mean, I guess if they’re not willing – we might have to look elsewhere. Hey – don’t the Los Angeles Dodgers have a bunch of free money? Oh, what a pitty it would be if the Giants’ workhorse went to the hated Giants rival. Oh what a situation that would be. But I guess the Giants don’t want to pay their stars – bummer. Guess we might have to break off negotiations until it’s too late. Unless you know, you can offer something more…../the end

Did I do a good job of acting out the part of Matt Cain’s representation?

We’ve seen it so many times – and as Forrest Gump would say, leverage is as leverage does.

Matt Cain wants a fair contract and there’s no harm in that. There are still three weeks until Spring Training comes to an end – if Cain’s representatives aren’t picking and pecking at the Giants’ brass to get what they’d deem as a perfect contract right now, they’re not doing their job. What’s the point of accepting a deal with three weeks left before the Giants pack up and open the regular season? Irritating as it might be for fans, they’re just doing their job and playing the game that we’ve seen so many times before.

It makes little sense for the Giants to hand out a open market contract to Cain right now – they, like Cain’s representatives, are trying to get themselves a “team-friendly” deal all while attempting to appease Cain financially. Three weeks is an eternity of time for the two sides to agree on a contract and even if they don’t, the panic is mostly set in by Cain’s self-imposed unofficial deadline of getting an extension done by the conclusion of Spring.

Before Rosenthal’s report, the only news we’d heard of the Cain contract talks was essentially positive and it came from reliable sources such as Baggs or Schulman. But now, the “bad” reports are coming from an influx of national writers with quotes from his agents in the pieces, who may or may not (read MAY) being using those said columnists as pawns and their media mouthpieces.

It’s all about leverage and Cain’s agents are currently in full Ari Gold mode.