On Bill Bavasi and the Art of Expectation Management

By Constable Echelon

Let me temper the love to follow with some preemptive hate: Bill Bavasi is a poor general manager and the Mariners would be better off without him.

That said, I think every general manager in every sport would do well to take notes on Bill Bavasi’s handling of the Ichiro contract extension. Let’s review the timeline of events.

-July 10. Right at the beginning of the all star break Larry Stone reports that Ichiro will be signing a 5 year $100 million contract extension.

-July 13. Immediately post all star break the Seattle Mariners hold a press conference to announce that Ichiro has been signed to a 5 year $90 million contract extension.

-July 18. Mariners announce intention to defer $25 million of Ichiro’s salary to be paid out from now until 2032(!).

All of a sudden Ichiro’s contract has shrunk from a 5 year $100 million potential albatross to a 5 year $65 million eminently reasonable deal.

What’s your reaction to pretty much every major free agent contract signed nowadays? Mine goes like this: “Well it’s good they locked him up, but it would have been nice to get him for a little less.”

This mastermind Bavasi has concocted the perfect method to assuage big ticket remorse for any fanbase by first creating a false universe, and then slowly revealing the actual reality featuring gloriously more reasonable terms. I mean, I liked the deal as originally announced – and now I LOVE it.

(See what I did there? That’s a little move I like to call a “Dave Barry” with the caps.)

This new Bavasi Method also diffuses any initial criticism of your big time contract, because all you have to do is wait a week and that criticism becomes irrelevant.

“Oh, you didn’t like my big contract a week ago? Now it’s 35% less. Suck my balls,” one might leave on one’s voicemail.

So good on you for once Bavasi. Now call up Adam Jones and make Vidro a hitting coach or something. Right now.