Tuesday, October 24, 2017

$100 Million Player

$100 Million Player

By Izzy Bigari

The Cubs’ pitcher Jake Arrieta has come to face a difficult decision, either leave the team he won a World Series with and earn $100 million pay raise or stay with his team, the group who has been through thick and thin with him and not take the pay raise. For Jake Arrieta, the explicit cost would be losing a $100 million pay raise. The Implicit cost would be leaving his team that he made many memories with and even won a World Series with. Now he must determine which one outweighs the other. This pitcher should first figure out the marginal costs of staying with the Cubs before deciding to transfer for a $100 million pay raise.

According to Bleacher Report, “This winter, Arrieta will test free agency. Someone will reward him handsomely, and unless the Cubs are willing to pay the market rate for an ace—$100-plus million—he'll be hurling baseballs in a new city,” (Bleacher Report). The cost of $100 million has a higher marginal utility than staying with the team that Arrieta won a World Series with.  This means that unless the Cubs are willing to pay more, Arrieta will be switching teams.  
After assessing the the situation, I would say that Arrieta made the right decision choosing to switch teams for the $100 million pay raise. After all, he will still have all the memories he made with the Cubs, but $100 million outweighs making more memories and staying with the Cubs.









Works Cited
Shafer, Jacob. “Cy Young Winner Jake Arrieta Could Bolt Cubs for Massive $100M Payday.” Bleacher Report, 23 Oct. 2017, bleacherreport.com/articles/2740111-cy-young-winner-jake-arrieta-could-bolt-cubs-for-massive-100m-payday.
Thompson, Phil. “John Fox vs. Jake Arrieta: A Hairy Face-Off.” Chicagotribune.com, 23 Oct. 2017, www.chicagotribune.com/sports/chicagoinc/ct-john-fox-jake-arrieta-beards-20171023-story.html.

12 comments:

  1. Very interesting topic Ms. Bigari, that's a great debate stay to win games or leave and set your family up for generations. For me I feel as though the choice would be easy if it were me. I would undoubtedly leave for the money. The factor of setting my family up for life would be too much to pass up and I would definitely leave the Cubs.

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  2. This is an interesting point. When thinking of a player going to another team, I never thought of it as in economics terms. For me if I was Jake Arrieta I would stay with the Cubs because he has a chance to win another world series. In economic terms, he would lose more than just the 100 million dollars.

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  3. This is a very interesting blog post. A lot of people can relate to it as it is very current and a very popular sport. I did not ever think about connecting econ to sports. I agree that it was the right decision to switch teams due to the pay raise.

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  4. I understand how marginal utility and marginal cost impact Jake Arrieta's decision. From an economic standpoint, I believe that the best decision would be for him to agree on the tradeoff due to the significant gain.

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  5. This piece reminded me of Brett Farve and the big switch he had in football. I am aware of how angry my father was along with the other Packer Fans but I think that some of the fans understood his reasoning. As far as baseball, he is still playing the sport he loves, just getting paid more for it. Similar to a teacher switching school districts, still teaching but in a new place with more money. I really think that he should’ve taken the new job, memories are great but his team understand the need for more money and they know that it is a hard decision.

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  6. I thought that it was very interesting how you assessed the costs and benefits of the baseball player Jake Arrieta. While the clear cost and benefit are of that you mentioned in your piece I think that there are definitely more costs to leaving the Cubs than you mentioned. For example he would have to find a new place to live wherever he transfers, and his whole family would have to move with him as well. If he has any kids they would have to change schools and leave their old friends behind, if his wife works in Chicago she would have to switch and find a new job. But that being said I also think that 100 million extra dollars would justify a move like that. I just personally think that there are more costs than stated in the piece.

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  7. Quite a misleading paragraph, the article implies that Jake Arrieta has the choice of getting a $100 Million Dollar pay raise (per year). I thought that this was extremely ridiculous so I did a quick google search and apparently Arrieta wants a 5 year contract worth $100 million. Also, I don't believe that Arrieta has a deal with anybody yet, therefore he might not even have that 100 Million contract as an option to him. Despite this, if he had the choice between a substantial pay raise or stay with his current team, the former would be the choice most people would pick. If Arrieta took the pay raise, few people besides Cubs fans would blame him.

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  8. Based off of the information in your blog post, it would seem as if staying on the Cubs would be a good option because of the memories made with his teammates. Though on the other hand, while the 100 million dollar contract may seem as if Arrieta only wants money, it is the best choice because it will benefit him specifically, and everyone else except for Cubs fans most likely. Overall, I would agree that Arrieta should go for the pay raise. Professional athletes switch teams all of the time, what would be so different about this?

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  9. I thought it was a unique perspective when evaluating the situation Jake Arrieta is in. Not many people will look at the view of marginal cost, implicit cost, and explicit cost. When people think of taking more money they don't realize how much economics fits into their life and their decision. Athletes seem to be in it more for the money other than the love of the game. With the offer of $100 million there would be opportunity cost if he accepted it and the cost is leaving those teammates he has spent several years with and teammates he just won a World Series with. He would always force his family to leave everything behind and start fresh in another city, school, and his wife would have to get a new job. However, thinking economically it is the right decision because of the amount of money he will be receiving.

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  10. Interesting topic to talk about. I don’t think about the marginal cost of changing teams when watching sports. Jake must have spent a lot of time thinking about the opportunity cost of both switching or staying. If he really wanted to get paid more doing what he loves, then I think he made the best decision for himself. However I personally disagree with Jake Arrieta's decision because I say forget the money since money is not as valuable as people are. I would have hope his teammates that have been there through thick and thin meant more than cash. To each their own….

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  11. It's very interesting that you connected econ to sports and I agree that it is in Jake Arrieta's best interest to take the 100 million dollar pay raise, because as you point out the marginal utility is higher for the 100 million dollar pay raise than staying with the Cubs. While I imagine it was hard for him to leave the team he won a World Series with, 100 million is just to much money to leave on the table.

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