It's been said many times that timing is everything.
Buster Olney of ESPN thinks that Mike Adams has splendid timing. Over the weekend (subscription required to read the whole thing), Olney made a list of 10 players he expects to become richer than they ever imagined this offseason and Adams slips onto the list at No. 9.
The reasoning for the expected interest in Adams includes the ever-rising importance of setup men in the game, especially one that has put together as many good years in a row as Adams, and the belief that his success in Arlington predicts success in any stadium.
To Olney, those pros are going to be enough to overcome the con of Adams' surgery last week to correct the thorasic outlet syndrome that ended his 2012 season. The injury is likely to be of some concern to interested suitors, but Olney writes that other issues will likely keep Adams' price high.
It's been a successful run of late for baseball financially, with television deals skyrocketing locally and being renewed at high rates nationally to keep everyone's balance sheets looking healthy. On top of that, there are tighter restrictions on spending on the amateur market, which Olney suggests will lead to that money being spent in free agency.
We'll see how everything plays out on that front -- some owners will surely plow more money back into their teams than others -- but it does seem apparent that keeping Adams is going to be an expensive proposition for the Rangers.
If we had to hazard a guess, it would be that the price will rise higher than they want to pay. We would have made that guess ahead of Olney's column, which only served to reinforce the feeling that someone else will be pitching in the seventh and eighth innings for the Rangers when the 2013 season gets underway.
