Winter Meeting Dumbosity: The Scutaro Edition

So....yeah.

Marco Scutaro, briefly the target of every team's affection (well, sort of), agreed to a three year deal with the San Francisco Giants late last night. That's 3 years and $20 million, for those of you keeping score at home.

Actually, if you're keeping score at home, that's one great big, "The fuck?!"

Marco Scutaro is 37 years old. At the end of the contract he just signed, he'll be just shy of his 40th birthday. (Unless the Giants make another late postseason run that year; his birthday is at the end of October.) The Giants are paying twenty million dollars for the ages 37-39 seasons of a second baseman.

Now, to be fair, Scutaro has been quite good the past handful of years. Since he left Oakland for the Canadian wilderness (Toronto is like a lumberjack camp, right? I don't know that much about foreign countries.), back in 2008, he's been worth at least 2.4 WAR every season, which would seemingly make him a bargain at a 1.2ish WAR salary. Why he suddenly enjoyed a career renaissance at age 33 I'm not sure, but he's definitely a much more productive, more useful player now in what should be his twilight years than he ever was early in his career.

Still, the aging curve is a harsh mistress, and players entering their late 30s are not exactly the best investment for the future.

Here's the thing: it sounds like a huge amount of money, and it sort of is, but when you break it down by value it isn't completely absurd. It's entirely possible Scutaro could be worth what Brian Sabean just handed him. Still, it seems to me like the Giants just doubled down on Blackberry stock in 2009. Yeah, he's definitely been worth it. But at some point the future is going to get here, and your investment in a commodity rapidly approaching the end of its lifespan is going to look mighty questionable.

Meanwhile, our Cardinals are doing...well, not much. Johnny Mo appears to be going the primum non nocere route, which is probably for the best. Well, best for the team, that is. Kind of shitty for those of us suffering from severe boredom and no real Redbird-related news.

Still, if the options are 1) do nothing, or 2) sign a 37 year old second baseman to a three year deal, I'll take primum non nocere all day every day.