Anyone who knows me has to deal with the fact that I think surplus value (SV) is a pretty clever concept, combining player performance (WAR) with a player’s salary to determine how good a value that player is to a team.
Yeah, I can see it getting a little unseemly, like the nonsense this summer about the Chicago White Sox gaming Eloy Jiménez’s service time to squeeze another season of control out of him? Maybe. I’l admit, SV is a little bit ledgery.
But you know what, teams are prized these days (probably always have been) for finding productive talent on the cheap.