Jered Weaver Chooses Loyalty over Cash: You're Not Dreaming, Angels Fans

When you play professional sports, there are some unspoken rules. Among them are that you wait to become a free agent and then cash in big time when it finally happens. In the upcoming offseason. names like Prince Fielder, Albert Pujols, Jose Reyes, CJ Wilson, David Ortiz and Jonathan Papelbon will likely all choose this well-travelled path. 

Not Jered Weaver, though. Weaver, who would have hit the free-agency market not this coming offseason, but the following one, decided not to hit it at all yesterday. Weaver instead opted to sign off on an $85 million, five-year contract extension. Exactly how much money this decision costs Weaver is debatable. 

Weaver is an "ace" in the big leagues. That makes him an extremely valuable commodity. A repeat performance of his Cy Young-caliber season this year would likely have netted him in the $150 million range. Then again, were Weaver to falter next season while still maintaining a fair percentage of his final numbers this season, he'd still receive a hefty contract.

There's little evidence to suggest that on the open market Weaver doesn't take in more money than the extension he ended up signing. 

Perhaps even more surprising is that Weaver is represented by agent Scott Boras, who has a well-earned reputation as one of Major League Baseball's most aggressive player agents. The phrase "leaving money on the table" is not one that gets thrown at a lot of Boras clients, and yet that's probably what Weaver did with this deal. 

That doesn't mean it's a bad deal, though. Maybe Weaver, who will be 29 years old on opening day 2012, has reached that point in his life where he realizes that there are other paths to being content besides a massive contract?

Weaver probably really likes playing for the Angels and living in Southern California. That's not a shock, considering he was born in Northridge, went to high school in Simi Valley and played his college ball at Long Beach State. 

Weaver has probably taken notice at the path Cliff Lee traversed to get his mega-deal. Lee has been one of the more dominant pitchers in baseball the past few years. He won the 2008 Cy Young award and then in 2009 and 2010 played for four different teams. He was traded first in 2009 from Cleveland to Philadelphia then was dealt to Seattle in the offseason. He started 2010 in Seattle and then was dealt to Texas in midseason. He finished the 2010 season there but left for Philly as a free agent last December. 

While all that moving and traveling earned Lee a ton of cash, Weaver may very well have looked at it and thought to himself that he wanted no part of it. Lee's journey began two seasons before his impending free agency, which may have played a role in Weaver's decision to sign this extension well in advance of his own free-agent eligibility due to kick in following the conclusion of the 2012 season. 

A deal of this sort made by a Boras client will likely be noticed by the Boston Red Sox, who have been able to lock up several key parts of their team for reasonable prices over the past few seasons.

Everyone knows about the big deals handed out to Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez, but the Sox have Dustin Pedroia at six years and $40.5 million through 2015, Jon Lester at five years and $30.5 million through 2014 and Clay Buchholz at four years and $30 million through 2015 as well.

With Boras client and MVP candidate Jacoby Ellsbury in line for free agency following the 2014 season, this Weaver deal may spur the Sox into action.

In the end, the biggest winners are the fans of the Angels, who don't have to endure a season of wondering if their best pitcher will leave them high and dry in the offseason. They don't have to worry about waking up one morning to learn that Weaver has been dealt for a bunch of prospects, many of whom would be unknown by most casual Angels fans.

Not many fans get to go out and watch a pitcher of Weaver's caliber every five days. Angels fans will now get to do that until the end of the 2016 season.