Free Agent Tracker

[Leonard Zelig]

Joel Pineiro to Angels.

[iamshack]

Piniero to Angels - 2/$16 million

Dotel to Pirates - 1/$3 million?

[Chisoxfn]

Terrible signing by the Angels. I'd be surprised if he repeat his 2009 numbers.

[LittleHurt05]

Dotel may have found himself a closers job for 2010

[Kalapse]

Dotel may have found himself a closers job for 2010

And for about $4M less than some on here were willing to pay him 2 months ago. Anyone still have any doubts that he'd have accepted arbitration?

[iamshack]

And for about $4M less than some on here were willing to pay him 2 months ago. Anyone still have any doubts that he'd have accepted arbitration?

The larger question is would you rather have Dotel for $3m or Putz for $3m (and probably more, because if he pitches like Dotel will the incentives will probably escalate his salary a bit)?

[Kalapse]

The larger question is would you rather have Dotel for $3m or Putz for $3m (and probably more, because if he pitches like Dotel will the incentives will probably escalate his salary a bit)?

You'd have to shell out more for Dotel, he's not going to accept the same amount to be a setup man as he would to be a closer. The opportunity to prove him self as a closer once again -- even if it is for the Pirates -- could improve his worth on next year's free agent market. Also: in order for Putz to reach his maximum incentives (an additional $3M) he'd have to close, there's only $250K in incentives for appearances. If he's closing long enough to earn the full $3M then he must be doing a damn good job in Bobby's wake.

[iamshack]

You'd have to shell out more for Dotel, he's not going to accept the same amount to be a setup man as he would to be a closer. The opportunity to prove him self as a closer once again -- even if it is for the Pirates -- could improve his worth on next year's free agent market. Also: in order for Putz to reach his maximum incentives (an additional $3M) he'd have to close, there's only $250K in incentives for appearances. If he's closing long enough to earn the full $3M then he must be doing a damn good job in Bobby's wake.

Ahh, fair enough.

I dunno about your closing theory though. Odds are, he's going to be traded midseason to the Red Sox or something as their setup man.

 

Seriously though, I wonder if presented with the offer last week, if he would have been able to choose the Pirates over the White Sox at the same $3 million.

[ThunderBolt]

Terrible signing by the Angels. I'd be surprised if he repeat his 2009 numbers.

Especially, sans Dave Duncan.

[iWiN4PreP]

Wow @ The Joel deal for the angels. Crazy money for him.

[Balta1701]

Dodgers Re-up with Padilla, 1 year, $5 mil.

[JDsDirtySox]

Royals sign Rick Ankiel to a 1 year deal with an option for year two.

Sounds like 1 year/3 million... with the second year coming in at 6 mil.

 

Pretty Hefty 2nd year.

 

The Royals OF is now DeJesus, Pods, and Ankiel...

With Jose Guillen at DH... Fields options are shrinking.

[balfanman]

And for about $4M less than some on here were willing to pay him 2 months ago. Anyone still have any doubts that he'd have accepted arbitration?

 

I was one who wanted Dotel back and would of offered him arbitration. Call me nut's I don't care, I've been called much worse. It's not my money and I would love a little more certainty in the pen. Correct me if I'm wrong but there is a lot of question marks in the Sox Bullpen. I think that the only "near" sure thing is Thornton and he's no certainty either.

 

I just hope that we don't blow our chances this year due to a weak pen when a few extra million (sounds trite doesn't it) would of nailed things down a little better. I guess if all else fails, we can be the team that acquires Dotel in July.

 

JMHO

[southsider2k5]

I was one who wanted Dotel back and would of offered him arbitration. Call me nut's I don't care, I've been called much worse. It's not my money and I would love a little more certainty in the pen. Correct me if I'm wrong but there is a lot of question marks in the Sox Bullpen. I think that the only "near" sure thing is Thornton and he's no certainty either.

 

I just hope that we don't blow our chances this year due to a weak pen when a few extra million (sounds trite doesn't it) would of nailed things down a little better. I guess if all else fails, we can be the team that acquires Dotel in July.

 

JMHO

 

So we need help in the pen, and the thing to do is to waste more money than necessary to fix it... um OK.

[Kalapse]

I was one who wanted Dotel back and would of offered him arbitration. Call me nut's I don't care, I've been called much worse. It's not my money and I would love a little more certainty in the pen. Correct me if I'm wrong but there is a lot of question marks in the Sox Bullpen. I think that the only "near" sure thing is Thornton and he's no certainty either.

 

I just hope that we don't blow our chances this year due to a weak pen when a few extra million (sounds trite doesn't it) would of nailed things down a little better. I guess if all else fails, we can be the team that acquires Dotel in July.

 

JMHO

It's not your money but if you're going to play armchair GM then you're gonna have to play with the same budgetary limitations as the real general manager. Offering Dotel arbitration would have netted him $3.5M to $4M more than what Putz was signed for, can you find that in the budget? Vastly overpaying for bullpen arms is rarely a good way to sure up your bullpen, it's usually the fastest way to eviscerate your payroll flexibility, paying a good middle reliever twice what he's worth, with this team's budgetary concerns, in this market is in no way a good idea.

 

Bullpens are going to be finicky from year to year, throwing gobs of money at the problem isn't going to solve anything. Uncertainty is the nature of the middle reliever, that's why they're a middle reliever in the first place.

[witesoxfan]

Had Dotel been offered arbitration, Putz would have probably been signed to a similar contract and Jenks would have been non-tendered or traded far, far below his value because the White Sox would have found very few trading partners for him.

[iguchi=dank]

Contreras to the Phils for a year, don't see a money figure yet... I bet he does well in his limited role there staying in the NL with a good clubhouse atmosphere.

[flavum]

Tejada back to Baltimore. Thought Crede would land there.

[ChWRoCk2]

Tejada back to Baltimore. Thought Crede would land there.

Liked that move. Orioles just need some pitching and they are a solid team imo.

 

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2010/01/reds...eague-deal.html

 

Wish we would have gotten Arredondo, Tommy John or not he has talent.

[Jordan4life_2007]

Tejada back to Baltimore. Thought Crede would land there.

 

Read that it's a 1-year deal. Depending on the dollars, I like this move for the O's. I really like what they're doing right now.

[ThunderBolt]

Liked that move. Orioles just need some pitching and they are a solid team imo.

They just need a pen, their young pitching is phenomenal.

[smalls2598]

Doug Davis signs a one year deal with the Brewers

[Balta1701]

Giambi re-signs with the Rockies, 1 year deal pending Physical.

[iamshack]

They just need a pen, their young pitching is phenomenal.

Their young pitching is promising, I wouldn't say yet phenomenal. Tillman and Matusz are probably going to be solid young pitchers, but they are not their yet. More like where Danksy was a few years ago, IMO.

[caulfield12]

The Royals are soaked with mediocre-to-bad outfielders. Well, first they have David DeJesus, who is actually a good player, though the sort of good player who will leave you wanting more. He can’t run, he probably will not hit more than 15 homers, and while he is above average at getting on base, he’s not that much above average (lifetime .358 OBP; last year .347). He plays good defense in left field, which is a bit like being a punter who can tackle — handy, but mostly beside the point. Left field defense is so much beside the point that the Royals now seem interested in moving DeJesus to right. DeJesus is the sort of guy who, I suspect, could really help a good team. He’s a bit out of place when he’s a team’s best player.

 

Beyond DeJesus, the Royals have “right fielder” José Guillen, who will get $13 million in his final year of that disastrous signing. He can’t play right field anymore, which is why the position is in quotations, and there’s no reason to believe he can hit anymore either. But he’s getting $13 million, so you have to hope. They just signed Scott Podsednik, who is coming off a decent year that he is 98 percent unlikely to repeat. They signed Brian Anderson, a one-time big prospect the Royals apparently believe has some untapped talent. They have Mitch Maier, a longtime Royals farmhand who seems to be a lot like Brian Anderson. They also have Alberto Callaspo, a pretty decent line-drive hitter who seems to have been bumped off second base. They also have Josh Fields, who has played some left field … they supposedly want to give him at-bats though he doesn’t really have a position. They also have a couple of mid-20s prospects who are probably not in the picture but, hey, they’re out there.

 

It seems to me that the outfield is chock-full. It’s not exactly chock-full of goodness, but, hey, we’ve been over the treading water bit already.

 

Then they sign Rick Ankiel. I’m not saying this is a bad move — I’m so completely confused by it that I can’t even think in terms of good and bad. Ankiel is one of the more famous stories in recent baseball. He was the preposterously gifted 20-year-old pitcher who lost his nerve. He was the kid hitter in the minor-leagues trying to live the dream. He was the 2007 call-up who hit 11 home runs in 47 games and the next year banged 25 homers in a comeback year that coupled nicely with Josh Hamilton’s resurgence.

 

And all that’s fine … but what is he beyond the storybook pages? He’s a 30-turning-31-year-old outfielder who has never had 500 plate appearances in a season. Last year, in 404 PAs, he hit .231/.285/.387.

 

He is a guy with some power and no plate discipline. He is a pretty good athlete with a great arm and shaky instincts. He’s an interesting right fielder because of his arm, but the Royals figure to put him in center where he’s at-best OK. He has a gigantic hole in his swing … he hit .266 in the minors and .251 in the majors, and there’s really no reason to believe that’s changing. People talk about him improving … but guys generally don’t start improving at 31.*

 

*It’s amazing that decades and decades after Bill James broke down the arc of big-league players’ careers that people still have this fundamental misunderstanding about how baseball players age. Back in 1988, when talking about what he had learned about baseball, he wrote “Ballplayers, as a group, reach their peak value much earlier and decline much more rapidly than people believe.”

 

Joe Posnanski, KC STAR