Ontario's Sweeney Signs Minor-League Deal with A's
A minor-league deal? This has to be something of a shock to Mike Sweeney, considering he was "the face" of the Kansas City Royals franchise for a decade -- and their highest-paid player for several years.
But the Ontario High School alumnus was injured much of the past few years (he missed between 40 and 102 games annually going back to 2003, and the club chafed under the five-year, $55 million contract Sweeney had. In several seasons it represented as much as one-third of the entire Royals payroll.
Read the Associated Press news story here.
Given that Sweeney's only defensive position is first base, a job in the American League makes more sense. He can also work at DH, that is.
A key here will be Sweeney showing up at the Oakland camp in a few weeks with the right attitude. I think he will. He's a very solid character guy, and he knows he hasn't demonstrated an ability to go out and play every day for a while ... and that his stats has been sliding even when he does play.
Besides his new contract status, it also will be weird for Sweeney to play on a team that isn't the Royals.
Kansas City may be the saddest franchise in baseball, but it was the only organization Sweeney ever knew.
Another thought: We often worry about the financial status of high-income athletes suddenly playing for a fraction of what they used to get paid.
I would be shocked, however, to find that Sweeney has blown through any major part of the $71.1 million he has earned in his career, according to baseball-reference.com.