Outwardly, it didn't seem to bother Wagner. He had a terrific year then cashed in when he hit the free-agent market, eventually signing a 4-year, $43 million contract with the New York Mets.
When they are in a contract year, players ritually deny the fact that millions of dollars could be at stake ever enters their minds.
Wagner, now with the Atlanta Braves, has already announced he'll retire at the end of this season. Asked recently if it was really possible to block out the knowledge that there could be a large pot of gold waiting at the end of the regular-season rainbow, he was typically direct.
"You can't not think about it," he said. "You've got an agent. You've got a wife. They know what's coming up. They're hoping for a big payday, since everybody gets paid when you get paid. Moms, dads, aunts, uncles. Everybody else gets a payday when you get paid. So there's a lot you have to think about."
Yankees lefthander CC Sabathia disagrees. After being traded by the Indians to Milwaukee in 2008, he pitched on short rest three straight turns down the stretch to help the Brewers make the playoffs.
"It's baseball. It's a long season. You've just got to go out and play every day. I don't think it was on my mind that much," he said. "Looking back on it now, I was just going out and trying to help the team win."
So it never entered his mind that he was risking an injury that could have made what turned out to be a $161 million jackpot disappear?
"I think if it had entered my mind, I wouldn't have been starting those games," he reasoned.
There are only a relative handful of people on the planet, really, who know from personal experience what goes on between the ears of a potential free agent who puts a potentially vast fortune on the line each time he suits up to play another game.
