Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Kuroda's Coming Back!
The Yankees are bringing back Kuroda on a one year $15 million deal that includes $1 million in incentives. This is quite the lofty raise from last years $10 million deal and certainly confirms that he read the market right when he turned down the $13.3 million qualifying offer. I get the sense that for proven starters entering the latter part of their careers, its better to sign one year deals. Every year you're open to the highest bidder, and every year, teams need pitching. Teams feel safe with a one year deal, so they're typically willing to overpay for that one year. We saw this repetitively with Roger Clemens. He basically wrote the terms of his contract, and handed it to Cashman to sign. In other news, the Yankees continue claiming pitchers off waivers, which is smart. Middle relievers are notoriously inconsistent year to year, and building a bullpen out of competition assures that the best performing pitchers will be on the big league roster. The players they claimed on waivers have names, but I can't recall them right now, so I'll go with Mike and Doug, and maybe a Greg somewhere in there.
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Good news, and he deserved the raise after anchoring the staff last season. I can't think of any pitchers who are as good as Kuroda and Pettitte and are available on one-year deals. That's assuming Pettitte decides to return after a laboriously slow consideration period.
Speaking of inconsistent middle relievers, the Blue Jays just DFA'd Cory Wade. The same guy who put up a 2.04 ERA in nearly 40 innings with the Yankees in 2011, and who would make less than $1 million in 2013 if signed.
If the Yankees have finally learned their lesson after wasting incredible sums of money on inconsistent relievers (including Soriano), that would help them free up incredible sums of money to spend on inconsistent starters and position players. Girardi has shown that he can get great results from spare parts in the pen.
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