Rockies Sign Josh Towers

UPDATE, 1-4-08 at 2:48pm: Towers has been signed; Troy Renck has the contract details.  There’s a mutual option for ’09 for $3MM.

FROM 1-3-08 at 10:07pm:

According to MLB.com’s Thomas Harding, the Rockies are close to a deal with pitcher Josh Towers, who turns 31 in February.  It would be a one-year deal for $1.8MM plus incentives.  Those incentives would start at 35 games pitched, so basically he won’t earn them if he’s exclusively a starter.

Harding adds that Towers would get $400K for earning a 40-man roster spot or the $1.8MM for getting on the 25-man.  He’d take on a swingman role (which is odd, because Kip Wells seems to have been signed for that purpose).

I like Towers’ chances to be worth a hell of a lot more than $1.8MM as a National League starter, but not so much in Coors Field.  Drunk Jays Fans recently weighed in on Towers’ tenure with Toronto, with their usual dose of cursing and hilarity.