Askmen.com presents their top ten list of All-time Baseball Free-Agent Bargains.
I’m glad to see their memory is intact and they remember Andre Dawson at #3. In the collusion market after the 1986 season, Dawson was picked up by the Cubs for $500,000 (plus incentives which eventually came out to around $700,000). Even back then, that was a pitiful amount.
The rest, as they say, is history. Dawson had his famous 49-homer, 137 rbi season for the last place Cubs. Both figures led the NL that year and were enough to garner him the NL MVP.
Fortunately, the Cubs saw value in their new outfielder and gave him a raise. They signed him at $1.85 million the next year.
Dawson played six 20+ HR years for Chicago.
Andre Dawson basically told the Cubs to write up a contract, with whatever numbers they wanted to pay him. After Dawson was the NL MVP, IMHO, the Cubbies should’ve returned the favor, telling him to write up a contract with whatever numbers he wanted as far as his pay.