The free agent market for relievers started with a bang when the Tigers officially signed Joaquin Benoit to a three-year, $16.5MM deal on Thursday. Benoit's deal could be attributed to the Tigers' aggression and the Levinson brothers' success with their mid-tier free agent clients. Or, the contract could be a sign that we're back to the crazy free agent days.
In each of the past four offseasons, about ten free agent relievers signed multiyear deals. This year we've already had two in Benoit and Jose Contreras. I've got 27 additional candidates; for this poll just select everyone who you think will sign for two or more years.
Wow this “clickable” format is great! Thanks guys – this is a great addition to the board!
Jason Grilli?
“Poll: Which Relievers Will Sign Multiyear Deals?”
The one that Hendry signs.
…and as of Monday morning, 49 of Guillermo Mota’s relatives had voted.
At least half this list has a chance to get a multiyear deal.
Balfour, Downs, Soriano and Mo are sure bets to sign multi-year deals.And the teams that sign Balfour, Downs and Soriano will almost certainly regret it.The teams with the best bullpens are ALWAYS the teams that acquire relievers on the cheap (draft, trade, bargain contract, whatever). Signing “big name” bullpen arms is like saying, “Hey, I’ve got some money to flush down the toilet. Why don’t I waste it on this 33-year-old?” Seriously, just look at how the top four guys here were acquired by their previous team…Balfour bounced around free agency and waivers and the Rays got him via trade.Downs was released and then signed as a free agent with plenty of service time left.Soriano was signed as an international free agent, then was traded twice.Mo was supposed to be a starter after signing as an international free agent, but the Yanks tossed him into the bullpen after he failed in the rotation.Great bullpens are built through finding quality arms on the cheap, NOT through spending big money on 32+ year-old relievers.
I want to like this comment like eight hundred times and cite it every time I hear an idiotic Red Sox fan complaining about Epstein not “fixing the bullpen yet.”
This applies to every team, of course, but so many big market fans just don’t seem to realize that you do not build a succesful bullpen by handing out long term, big money contracts to relievers (My own fanbase should say hello to Mike Timlin and Keith Foulke sometime).
Holy crap! I get to do just that!
I think you are the idiot:
Timlin w/Sox – 3.76 ERA, $16M/6 years, 2 rings
Foulke w/Sox – 3.75 ERA, $20M/3 years, 1 ring
Both players had their shares of ups and downs in Boston, but both players were major contributers to winning the the world series.
Boston did not make the playoffs last year and I think a solid bullpen could have made all the difference. The Red Sox literally have nothing solid after Bard and Papelbon…this is the year to go out and get the free agents.
I’m curious to hear you answer this question…how can the Red Sox build a succesful bullpen to help them win a World Series NEXT YEAR?
Judging a reliever off of ERA is idiotic considering they quite often come on with inherited runners that don’t go against it. Timlin had two good season in Boston, ’03 and ’07.
Meanwhile, Foulke is signed a three year deal, pitched one good year and then fell completely apart.
The basic point is that relievers ARE NOT CONSISTENT. Most of the time, that’s why they’re relievers.
“I’m curious to hear you answer this question…how can the Red Sox build a succesful bullpen to help them win a World Series NEXT YEAR? ”
The way they’re doing it now and did in 2009 (When they had one of the best relief corps in the AL): bring as many arms as possible into spring training and let them duke it out. Go with whoever shows the most consistency. For all your complaints about last year’s bullpen, I should note that the makeup of that pen was close to identical to the 2009 pen which was considered phenomenal.
From 2009 to 2010 we had Papelbon, Bard, Ramirez, Okajima and Delcarmen all staying in the bullpen. All of those guys opened 2009 strong and it was considered one of the best bullpens in the game at the time. Turn the page to 2010 and they were one of the worst and only one of them actually had a good season and only two of them are likely to be with the team in 2011 (Bard and Papelbon). Why is this? Because the inherent inconsistency that usually defines someone as a career reliever 9 times out of 10 results in relievers rarely putting up consistent numbers from year to year.
You don’t fix a bullpen by throwing money at it. That’s a recipe for disaster and anyone with any baseball knowledge can tell you that. The Sox will sign MAYBE one reliever to a multi year deal (Epstein has said he hates the idea but acknowledges he may have to), but he’ll likely fill the remainder with minor leaguers who don’t fit in the rotation like Bowden and Doubront and reclamation projects like Taylor Buchholz.
I can’t imagine your idea of giving up pretty much the first four or five rounds of next year’s draft signing middle relievers is any better of an idea.
Great poll and format. Would love to see something like this for SPs and position players.
It’s aggravating to me that the Red Sox will go out and spend $12.5M on a one dimensional DH, $12M on a back up short stop, $18MM but don’t like to put money towards the bullpen because durability concerns.
I’d love to see the Red Sox trade Papelbon for a 1B, 3B or OF and see Theo rebuild the bullpen.
Last year the Red Sox had:
Bard (1.93 ERA), Papelbon (3.90 ERA), Okajima (4.50 ERA), Atchison (4.50 ERA), Richardon (4.15 ERA), Bowden (4.70 ERA), Doubront (4.32 ERA)
I’d love to see:
Bard (1.93 ERA) ($500k)
Rauch (3.12 ERA) (3 years, $3M per)
Downs (2.64 ERA) (3 years, $4.75M per)
Wheeler (3.35 ERA) (2 years, $2.5M per)
Frasor (3.68 ERA) (1 year, $2M)
Doubront (4.32 ERA) ($500k)
Fuentes (3.52 ERA) (1 year, $4M)
or
Takahashi (3.61 ERA) (1 Year, $2.5M)
This bullpen would be a rock and cost about $15-17M.
Papelbon alone will probably cost $10M. Hopefully the Sox can move him if they throw in a few million or trade him for a positional player that the Red Sox need to fill a hole but overpaid a couple million over the next year or two.
I love how you think Jason Frasor will turn down arbitration to sign a 1 year deal with the sox worth LESS, then what he’s making now and about 1,000,000 less then he would be awarded through arbitration… Not to mention how half of these guys are Type A’s the sox wouldn’t have one draft pick left in 2011
Who needs draft picks in a strong draft class in what is likely to be the last draft with no hard slotting? LOOK AT ALL THOSE RELIEVERS!!!
I enjoy sarcasm also.
“Balfour, Downs, Soriano and Mo are sure bets to sign multi-year deals.
And the teams that sign Balfour, Downs and Soriano will almost certainly regret it.
The teams with the best bullpens are ALWAYS the teams that acquire relievers on the cheap (draft, trade, bargain contract, whatever). Signing “big name” bullpen arms is like saying, “Hey, I’ve got some money to flush down the toilet. Why don’t I waste it on this 33-year-old?” Seriously, just look at how the top four guys here were acquired by their previous team…
Balfour bounced around free agency and waivers and the Rays got him via trade.
Downs was released and then signed as a free agent with plenty of service time left.
Soriano was signed as an international free agent, then was traded twice.
Mo was supposed to be a starter after signing as an international free agent, but the Yanks tossed him into the bullpen after he failed in the rotation.
Great bullpens are built through finding quality arms on the cheap, NOT through spending big money on 32+ year-old relievers. ”
So sayeth xub. Seriously, with how badly relievers can fluctuate from season to season, signing a bunch of relievers to $20 million worth of contracts is idiotic.
I’m not so sure you bring in all those relievers for all that money. These guys have all had ups and downs in there careers as ALL relievers do. There are few exceptions but unless you’re going out and getting the BEST closers to fill out your ENTIRE bullpen, which makes NO SENSE at all, DON’T SPEND THAT KIND OF MONEY ON A BULLPEN.
Great point!
The Sox should go out and sign Soriano, Wood, Fuentes, Putz AND Rivera and lure Wagner out of retirement! They’ve all been closers before and we can throw them in the pen with Bard and Papelbon! I can’t think of a single thing that could go wrong with this idea.
How do these percentages work? I’m sure more than 8% think Downs will get a multiyear deal…
The percentages are meaningless, sorry. I am talking to polldaddy support to see if we can get them to reflect the % of survey takers who included the player on their ballot.
Disappointed in polldaddy especially considering their price. But we still have our surveymonkey subscription, and this type of poll may have to be done with them. At any rate, if you took the poll this morning please take it again if you don’t mind.
Any general manager who offers Kyle Farnsworth a multi-year deal should be immediately terminated.