Well no sooner did I wright my article yesterday about the remaining top free agents that two more signed a deal today. The Rays signed both Johnny Damon and Manny Ramirez making them teammates again since their days together on the Red Sox from 2002 to 2005. Damon's deal is worth $5.25MM plus a potential $750K in bonus money based on attendance; Damon lives in Orlando and would have to make a difference at the gate. He would get $150,000 each for every 10K people after 1.75 MM, in home attendance. Ramirez's deal is worth $2MM and he will undoubtedly be the DH while Damon will be the starting left fielder, after posting a .298/.409/.460 slash line in 320 plate appearances in 2010 Ramirez will definitely earn that $2MM if he puts up similar numbers. Damon's incentives will be hard to earn as he would have to keep attendance the same from last year to earn even the first level of his attendance bonus and his $5.25 base salary essentially offsets the salary they saved in trading Garza and while his offense is much better than Ben Zobrist's .230 his defense is very questionable. Both of these deals are pending physicals and have yet to be announced.
Vlad Guerrero is also apparently nearing a deal with the Orioles for a "humbling" 1 year deal. This would be a sure bargain for the O's after Vlad hit .300 last year with 29 HR's and 115 RBI's and he would undoubtedly be the O's DH. No exacts on the amount but i would say probably between $2.5MM and $4MM. I have to question whether this deal is true or not as yesterday a similar story came out and was soon declared false.
In other MLB news The Blue Jays traded Vernon Wells for Juan Rivera and Mike Napoli, Wells still has four years left on his massive $126MM deal. The deal has earned praise for Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos and left many Angels fans scratching their heads and personally I don't understand the deal either. There really doesn't seem to be any upside to this deal for the Angels as they add a lot of salary for another old declining outfielder and they lose their starting catcher who hit 26 HR's last year and right now are looking at Jeff Mathis as their starting catcher when he IS the worst backup in the game. This deal could affects two of the three Molina's as it would seem that Jose Molina is out of the back up job unless Napoli is viewed as a first baseman by the Jays. Don't feel to bad for Jose because he or his brother Bengie or even Chad Moeller are all better options at starting catcher than Mathis. The Angels have also said that they could still be in the market for a lead-off hitter but I doubt they will replace Peter Bourjos in the outfield and I don't see where they can add another player. The one positive of this trade for the Angels is that it makes the Angels outfield arguably the best defensive outfield in baseball and the best in a very good AL West.
I would not be surprised to see Scott Podsednik sign with the Jays soon as he was an option for lead-off for the Jays and they now have a glaring hole in center that either he or Fred Lewis could fill.
Nothing new from the Yankees but they are still looking for another starter who could still end up being Andy Pettitte. I will be writing soon about the Yankees options for a fifth starter and their options for a fifth Outfielder. It is only 23 days until Pitchers and catcher report.
No comments:
Post a Comment