Instead of battling Doug Davis at an arbitration hearing, the Diamondbacks decided to sign him through 2009 for $22MM. The deal buys out his first two years of free agency; there’s one off the board for the ’08 class. While Davis would have earned several million more had he waited until November, the certainty is valuable.
The 31 year-old southpaw is a durable 200 inning guy with a strong strikeout rate but shaky control. He, Randy Johnson and Brandon Webb are locked down for Arizona’s 2008 rotation.