Boppers at bargain prices

It apparently is fashionable in Major League Baseball to be young, talented and grumpy about your salary.

This offseason, players and owners have battled over the question of how much young, talented players should make in the years before they become eligible for free agency.

On the surface, a player looking for more dough is nothing new. But increasingly, the debate has shifted to players like Prince Fielder, Ryan Zimmerman and Cole Hamels, whose major league service time has not yet allowed them to make the big bucks.

Ryan Zimmerman, the cornerstone of the Nationals’ franchise, likely will enter this season earning less than $500,000. Fielder, the Brewers first baseman who finished third in the voting for National League MVP, will earn $670,000. And Hamels, the ace of the Phillies pitching staff, will earn $500,000.

“I’m not happy about it at all,” Fielder told reporters after hearing about of his contract.

Hamels called his contract a “low blow.”

Why don’t teams pay these players more? The answer is simple: They don’t have to. Generally, players can earn the league minimum until they are eligible for arbitration, usually after three years.

Consider the case of Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard. Last year, the team gave Howard a one-year, $900,000 contract after he was named NL MVP. This season, the team will pay Howard $10 million after the team took him to arbitration and lost.

Howard’s not complaining, but fans have started to wonder when — or even if — the Phillies will lock up the slugger with a long-term contract.

Howard can’t become a free agent until after the 2011 season. The Phillies have been mum on their long-term strategy for the slugger, but it’s possible the team recognizes that in his free agent year he will turn 32, an age when many large players with his body type begin to break down physically.

Or it could be that the Phillies, with a payroll now more than $100 million, are not in a position to pay more than necessary to keep the core of the team intact.

Some teams, however, have taken a different approach with their young stars.

The Cleveland Indians last March locked up Grady Sizemore with a six-year, $23.45 million contract even though he had less than two years of major league service and was not eligible for arbitration. The Braves gave catcher Brian McCann a six-year, $26.8 million extension two years before he was arbitration-eligible.

The Rockies last month signed shortstop Troy Tulowitzki to a six-year, $31 million contract even though he will enter his second full season, and the Twins gave catcher Joe Mauer a four-year, $33 million deal before he became eligible for free agency.

These contracts make sense for the players because it gives them immediate financial security. Teams like the deals because it gives them budget certainty and the contracts usually include at least one or two of the players’ free agent years.

And sometimes the teams’ end up looking like financial geniuses. Grady Sizemore locked up through 2012 at less than $4 million a year? Talk about a bargain. Too bad the Indians couldn’t have done the same with pitcher C.C. Sabathia, who becomes a free agent after this season and likely will command a contract out of Cleveland’s reach.