The Angels re-signed reliever Francisco Rodriguez to a minor league deal, report Alden Gonzalez and Spencer Fordin of MLB.com. Don't confuse this Rodriguez with K-Rod, who closed for the Angels from 2002-08 and is now with the Brewers.
Rodriguez, 28, tossed 13 2/3 innings in the Majors in 2011 as well as ten in the minors. In the offseason, he was designated for assignment and became a free agent after clearing waivers.
Well done – maybe GM of Angels was drunk when they signed him. Got the wrong guy.
One doesn’t have anything to do with the other. If you’re spending a few million below market value for your closer, you shouldn’t squander that on vastly overpaying a setup man.
I’ve already seen this argument here, and it doesn’t wash. If you have the money to spend, then what does it even matter? It’s not like Milwaukee is paying him the astronomical tag that the Mets had been. I look at him more as an insurance policy. Having been through the Turnbow debacle, it doesn’t hurt to have a guy with a proven track record in your bullpen that you can call upon in case your closer falls apart.
Because every dollar you spend on K-Rod is a dollar you can’t spend else where. The Brewers probably could have got a comparable performance from a set up man for much less money and used that saved money addressing the team’s other needs.
Yeah – except they were still able to address their needs AFTER having a good idea of what they’d be committing to K-Rod. I’ve always been a harsh critic of Doug Melvin, but he did more in replacing the faulty parts on this team than I thought he would. He could have re-signed Betancourt on the cheap, and used an internal option to man third base, but he went out and spent on the FA market. Now you can debate whether or not signing Aramis Ramirez and Alex Gonzalez were the right moves, but you cannot debate that he still had money to make “upgrades.” They were not re-signing Fielder. They were not going to commit big money and years to Reyes. He did everything he feasibly could have, K-Rod on the payroll or not.
I kind of agree with you. I don’t think paying K-Rod 8 mill for one season is really a terrible contract, I thought it would be a lot worse when he accepted arb. But you still can’t say his contract isn’t bad because they have another good relieve who’s cheap. You can’t just add salaries and divide it just doesn’t work that way.
I can say it’s not “bad.” I just did. If the owner is not afraid of paying 8mil for a setup man/backup closer than I certainly won’t bat an eye at it. Even if the Brewers bomb the first half, his contract is not going to make him unattractive to a contender at the deadline. I’m sure the return won’t be great, but it will be something. Something is more than they’d have gotten if they decided not to tender him with an arbitration offer.
I don’t think it’s bad for the Brewers, it certainly doesn’t hurt them and few one year contract can really be awful. It’s the reasoning that because of Axford K-Rod’s contract isn’t bad that I think is wrong, nothing else.
The owner’s willingness to pay that money IS a problem if paying that money stops him from spending money on a bigger need. Equivalent relievers (in quality, not fame, which is always overvalued with relievers) can be had for much less money, which would leave more money for things like shortstop or first base or rotation depth.
I can say it’s not “bad.” I just did. If the owner is not afraid of paying 8mil for a setup man/backup closer than I certainly won’t bat an eye at it. Even if the Brewers bomb the first half, his contract is not going to make him unattractive to a contender at the deadline. I’m sure the return won’t be great, but it will be something. Something is more than they’d have gotten if they decided not to tender him with an arbitration offer.
Double post – Oops!
Double post – Oops!
Yeah – except they were still able to address their needs AFTER having a good idea of what they’d be committing to K-Rod. I’ve always been a harsh critic of Doug Melvin, but he did more in replacing the faulty parts on this team than I thought he would. He could have re-signed Betancourt on the cheap, and used an internal option to man third base, but he went out and spent on the FA market. Now you can debate whether or not signing Aramis Ramirez and Alex Gonzalez were the right moves, but you cannot debate that he still had money to make “upgrades.” They were not re-signing Fielder. They were not going to commit big money and years to Reyes. He did everything he feasibly could have, K-Rod on the payroll or not.
Why would Brewers fans care how much the owner is willing to spend? Did they offer Prince Fielder $205,000,000 and missed re-signing him by that much?
Also, hate to break it to you, but saves are a meaningless statistic. K-Rod will probably pitch more high-leverage innings and be more valuable this season than if he *were* the closer.
I think they were willing to take him back for a year, but I’m still betting they would have preferred the picks.
Either way – picks are nice, but if the owner is willing to pay in the event he couldn’t catch on somewhere else, it’s not exactly Win-Win, but it’s not killing them. He’s still a valuable piece on a contender.
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waste of money and overrated, just call up jepsen or khon to fill that final spot
YAH GOT ME!
Brewers didn’t want a 8M setup man, just the draft picks. If they can trade him for something good, they probably will. From K-Rod’s perspective, I’m sure he doesn’t want to waste any more time in setup role. It’s just that there were too many closer options this off season.
I mean the Braves have a better 1-2 combo at the back of their bullpen and they pay 1/4 of what the Brewers are paying for Axford/KRod…
Heck we have a 1-2-3 punch in our bullpen that costs 1/3 of what they are getting paid…