A lot of relievers are getting three-year deals. That’s a bit scary.
Craig Calcaterra Dec 16, 2010, 6:09 AM EST
It always takes a while for teams to turn to the bullpen during the offseason,
but when they do, they tend to do it all at once. And it was certainly a big
day for relief pitcher signings and rumors yesterday. Matt Guerrier, Kerry Wood
and Jesse Crain signed. There’s action on Bobby Jenks and Octavio Dotel. I’m
sure this will continue for a while.
Of particular note: Crain and Guerrier signed three-year deals. As did Joaquin
Benoit and Scott Downs recently. Three-year deals for relievers seem kind of
nuts to me given how up-and-down almost every reliever’s performance tends to
be. I hadn’t realized how up-and-down until I saw this tweet from Dave Cameron
yesterday:
List of relievers who have signed 3+ year deals since 2006 and been worth the
money: Rivera. That’s it. That’s the list.
He means free agent relievers, not necessarily young ones locked up by their
teams during arbitration years such as Joakim Soria, but it’s still a pretty
startling observation. And even though Cameron doesn’t define “worth the
money” in his tweet, it’s hard to come up with a single non-Mariano exception
to the observation, even if you’re generous about what “worth” is.
The Jayson Werth deal signaled that baseball’s recent run of relative
austerity was over. The fact that setup guys are getting three-year deals like
this is pretty darn good supporting evidence.
http://goo.gl/phUdm