Mark Shapiro and the Indians had three option decisions to make, and today the team exercised all of them. All of these were pretty much expected to be exercised.
- Closer Joe Borowski gets $4MM rather than a $250K buyout.
- Starter Paul Byrd gets $8MM instead of a $250K buyout.
- Southpaw reliever Aaron Fultz gets $1.5MM instead of a $0.15MM buyout.
So, $13.5MM for the trio of pitchers. Seems reasonable. Of course there’s the HGH stigma with Byrd. But as a baseball decision, it’s fair to expect him to pitch like a back-rotation guy worthy of a one-year, $7.75MM deal.