A couple of free agent first baseman – Adam Dunn and Lance Berkman have dollar figure expectations trickling out, and they aren’t out of line with what you’d expect them to be asking.
Adam Dunn’s agent, Greg Genske, has let interested teams know that the bidding for the left-handed slugger will start at four years for $60 million. The market on Dunn cratered two years ago, and he ended up going to Washington on a two-year, $20 million deal.
One executive interested in Lance Berkman(notes) expects that it will take a one-year, $7 million deal to sign him, which is around the market rate for a mid-30s designated hitter with a long-standing pedigree. Berkman has drawn significant interest as a DH, a position he’s loath to accept full time. Yahoo! Sports.
Dunn’s name keeps popping up in connection with the Cubs, but to the extent he can actually land a 4/$60 million deal, it surely won’t be with the Cubs. I’m skeptical that he can actually get more than three years and more than $12 million per.
As for Berkman, a one-year deal in the $5 to 7 million range is what I predicted from the outset, so there isn’t much of a surprise here. The real question is whether the Cubs would be better served trading for Chris Davis and/or letting Tyler Colvin hack it at first, and pocketing that money for mid-season (should a miracle happen and the Cubs are competitive) or for 2012, when the first base market could feature big names like Adrian Gonzalez, Prince Fielder, and yes, Albert Pujols.
The Cubs’ other prime free agent target at first base, Carlos Pena, isn’t expected to sign for much less than $7 million, either, so the question of spending at first base is really a global one, rather than particular to a given player.