Yesterday, the Rangers avoided arbitration with Mike Napoli, agreeing to a one-year, $9.4MM contract for 2012. The 30-year-old obtained the second-highest raise for any third or fourth-time eligible position player, trailing only Prince Fielder. Here's more on the Rangers..
- After signing Napoli, GM Jon Daniels said that the Rangers are now over budget and not likely to add any other free agents this off-season, writes Jeff Wilson of the Star-Telegram. Daniels won't shut the door on either Roy Oswalt or Mike Gonzalez but he says that it's hard to envision signing either player with their current payroll situation.
- Daniels added that there haven't been extension talks with Josh Hamilton as the outfielder is focusing on his health and family, Wilson tweets.
- Napoli settling below the midpoint of the two offers makes revisiting multi-year deal more realistic, tweets Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News.
they got all that money up front for the tv deal, I think the contract was closer to 1.6 billion than 3 bilion
I always take what Jon Daniels says with a grain of salt. With this front office, there are always a surprise or two.
I still feel as if Jon Daniels has a big move up his sleeve. As set as this rotation and line up looks, I would not be suprised to see a new starter and/or OFer on this team via trade or FA.
Money aside, JD does indeed have lots of trade chips. Silly of Angels fans to think they have more money than the Rangers to spend and that overspending on a couple of guys is going to guarantee them the AL West.
1. The Angels DO have more money to spend.
2. The Angels just signed the best hitter in this generation and your best starting pitcher. Your “smart” money was $110m on a guy who hasn’t pitched in anything beyond Japanese baseball.
Makes sense that they are overbudget. They had to drop that huge posting commitment for Yu Darvish.