The Philadelphia Phillies were just ousted from the National League playoffs by the St. Louis Cardinals, so now’s the perfect time for Phillies players to announce their demands for contracts nobody with a functioning frontal lobe of brain should give them. First on the list is Jimmy Rollins, the former NL MVP shortstop who, according to Philly.com Sports, wants to stay in town for the next five years. Keep in mind that he’s already been a Phillie, more or less, since 1996, a year that didn’t happen in the last decade, but in the decade before that.
Rollins, a Phillie for the last 15 years of his life, has set the bar high for his impending free agency. The soon-to-be 33-year-old shortstop wants a five-year contract.
“I’m looking to get five years,” Rollins said. “If it’s going to be shorter, there would have to be a fifth-year option or something like that. My option.”
Sure, being 33 doesn’t make him Julio Franco or anything, but a lot of shortstops don’t make it that deep into their thirties. Ruben Amaro Jr. seems open to the idea, or at least his diplomatic statement seems to lean him that way.
“There’s no question we want Jimmy back and be in our uniform and play shortstop for us for the next several years. Whether that happens kind of depends on if we get to the finish line on it. But Jimmy knows where we stand. Those things will be private.”
For some reason I can’t shake the image of a 36-year old Jimmy Rollins in San Francisco, slowly scooping up grounders and making way too much money to do it.
