- Jorge De La Rosa signs 2 year $21.5 million deal with Rockies*
- Javier Vazquez signs 1 year $7 million deal with Marlins
- Adam Dunn signs 4 year $56 million deal with White Sox
- Pat Burrell signs 1 year $1 million deal with Giants
*Options could increase deal to 4 years and $43 million
1. This is perhaps the best deal of this off-season in my opinion, as the Rockies lock up De La Rosa for two years with a player option for a third year and a club option for the fourth. If the deal goes to its maximum length it would be worth $43 million. De La Rosa presents one of the few players on the free agent market with “upside”, meaning that he has a realistic opportunity to perform better than last season and even make his deal a positive for the club he is signing with. De La Rosa has electric stuff and is a better fit for Coors Field than any of the rest of the Free Agent starters in their price range. If you’re going to succeed in Colorado, you better have swing and miss stuff or you better have a sinker that you can keep down. De La Rosa is the former. Good deal for both sides here.
2. If Javier Vazquez isn’t the poster boy for the talent differential between the AL and NL, I’m not sure who is. Vazquez went to the AL after being a Cy Young candidate in 2009 for the Atlanta Braves and was absolutely slaughtered in the AL East. He now comes back to the NL East for a one year deal worth $7 million that includes a no trade and no arbitration clause. According to advanced metrics Vazquez lost several miles per hour on his fastball and that was a major contributor to his struggles last season. If that’s not corrected, its hard to imagine him giving the Marlins the value they’re looking for, even in the National League. I’m somewhere in the middle on this deal because if Vazquez is healthy, he probably returns to form, but pitchers in their mid-to-late thirties who lose velocity on their fastball usually don’t get it back.
Tags: adam dunn, Brian Sabean, Giants, Javier Vazquez, Jorge De La Rosa, marlins, MLB, pat burrell, Rockies, White Sox
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