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player ready...New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon maintained from the outset that his only concern about signing Vladimir Guerrero was the disc problem in his back that caused the superstar right fielder to miss nearly six weeks last season.
“My problem,” Wilpon had said, “is that the guy is uninsurable.”
He wasn’t exaggerating.
In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the insurance industry took the biggest hit of all. That has been reflected most in baseball, where companies no longer will insure player contracts of more than three years.
In addition, companies will not insure a player’s body part if it has been injured previously. They’ll insure the player, but only for injuries unrelated to previous injuries. And the one body part that can end a player’s career is an injured back.
Before Guerrero signed for five years and $70 million with the Anaheim Angels, only five players–Javier Vazquez, Ichiro Suzuki, Miguel Tejada, Keith Foulke and Bartolo Colon–had signed contracts in excess of three years this winter. And of those five, only Colon, who also signed with the Angels, had ever spent time on the disabled list. Even that was just one brief stint in April 2000.
Fifteen other players signed three-year deals: LaTroy Hawkins, Kaz Matsui, Mike Cameron, Kelvim Escobar, Aubrey Huff, Arthur Rhodes, Gary Sheffield, Miguel Batista, Luis Castillo, Eddie Guardado, Raul Ibanez, Shannon Stewart, Javy Lopez, Sidney Ponson and Andy Pettitte.
Six of them were never on the disabled list, and only four were on it more than once. The most injured in that group? Pettitte, who has had four stints on the DL.