Photo: Amanda Bowen
I doubt I’ll ever understand the Brooks Orpik contract, but I promise you I’m going to go into the season looking for any reason to fall in love with him, Pittsburgh shirts or no. He’s our guy now.
But I just read a profile on the new Caps defenseman, and I am in that unhappy place again.
The veteran defenseman recently talked with The Washington Post’s Alex Prewitt about his really nerdy – and healthy – eating habits.
The story is great, but the end fills me with dread. Orpik says the Caps admitted to him that they signed him to a $5.5-million AAV contract based on past performance– not on what he might do in the next five seasons.
“We didn’t bring you here to live up to certain dollar figures,” Brooks Orpik said to Prewitt, recalling what the team told him weeks ago. “We signed you for who you are, not for who we think you’ll become.”
That’s not how it’s supposed to work. Players are supposed to be paid based on what they can offer during the term of their contracts. Instead, it seems– at least to Brooks– that the Caps are paying him $27 million over the next five years to a 34-year-old based on stuff that has already happened– his leadership and past achievements– knowing full well he won’t match that in the future.
“You have to find certain ways to combat other things that are unavoidable,” Orpik said of his conditioning. “Certain things slow down. If you don’t make certain changes, it can go downhill a lot quicker than you want.”
Good times. For now.
