The D'Backs have agreed to sign Willie Bloomquist to a one-year, $1.05MM deal, according to Jon Heyman of SI.com (on Twitter). Agent Scott Boras negotiated the deal, which includes a mutual option for 2012.
Bloomquist has played every position but pitcher and catcher in each of the past two seasons. The 33-year-old spent 2010 with the Royals and Reds, posting a .267/.299/.380 line in 199 plate appearances. Bloomquist stole 25 bases a year ago, so he has some speed.
The utility player will likely fill out the D'Backs' bench and complete their offseason shopping. The club could add a starter on a minor league deal, but most of GM Kevin Towers' work is now done.
Bloomquist's arrival will make it harder for Tony Abreu to crack the team's Opening Day roster, as Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic pointed out earlier today. Abreu will likely compete with Cole Gillespie, Ryan Roberts, Brandon Allen and Wily Mo Pena for a roster spot this spring.
I see the name Wily Mo mentioned. Theo had a great – and unintentional – line on the Arroyo for Wily Mo K trade “We whiffed on that one.” Yep….WMK and whiffed.
Kudos to Willie’s agent! How he got a million guaranteed while other, better players are accepting minor league deals, I don know… That is pretty amazing in and of itself. I guess he got the money because he’s viewed as a super utility man but given that he is average to below-average defensively whereever he plays, it shouldn’t be as much a coup for his value. Again, great job by Willie’s agent.
Scott Boras. ‘Nough said.
Good sign and a class guy. Saw him with the Royals last year in St.Pete. Willie has a ball for 7 year old kid and motions the kid over. A autograph whore jumps to rail thinking he’s gonna score. Willie tells him to get the Fuc* outta here. Classic. Kid was thrilled to death.
These kind of players are worth the money.
A “class guy” dropped an F-bomb in front of a seven year-old kid?
The D’Backs are the kings of mediocrity. Hilarious that they signed this guy and are actually willing to give him a million dollars to be terrible.
The Giants spend a million dollars and get a year of Pat Burrell.
The DBacks spend at least a million dollars each (and in some cases, significantly more) on a year of Xavier Nady, a year of Henry Blanco, a year of Melvin Mora (at $2M!!!) and two years of Geoff Blum.
There’s a reason that some teams win championships while others win chicken sh*t. In the post-Jerry era, the DBacks can only =dream= of mediocrity…
Yah Boom-Boom Bloomquist strikes again ! At the very least he can go around solving mysteries in Arizona with that girl with the dragon tatoo.
LOL a million for Willie? Give that agent a RAISE!!!
LOL a million for Willie? Give that agent a RAISE!!!
Why are the Diamondbacks collecting overpriced utility players?
cause he plays 7 positions, plays infield pretty well, runs good and is better than most utility guys that can play just the infield, much less every OF position.
hard to figure, people here were talking about how good Billy Hall was and he is a horrendous fielder, strikes out once every 3 AB’s and only has some power that occurs during meaningless situations, yet got over 3M, but people thing that Bloomquist getting 1M is so bad.
How odd. he’s the perfect NL guy that can come in and P/R in situations and still hits better than 95% of pitchers.
Nothing against Bloomquist, but, this deal looks like several others that the D-backs have done this offseason. I’m surprised that he got anywhere near the money he got.
I am just confused as to why they signed players such as Bloomquist, Blum, Nady and Mora this offseason to million dollar plus deals.
From NBC Sports’ HARDBALL TALK blog:”[H]e got a chance to play regularly for the Royals in 2009 and hit .265/.308/.355 in 468 plate appearances for a 97-loss team and his .653 career OPS ranks eighth-worst among all active players with at least 2,000 plate appearances ahead of only Juan Castro, John McDonald, Cesar Izturis, Adam Everett, Nick Punto, Willy Taveras, and Alex Cora.”Other than Everett (who had some value as a defense-only SS in his youth), this is a group of players you would not want to give a million dollars to, for any reason, at any point in their respective careers. These are very, very bad players. Again, aside from a young Everett, none should have ever done anything more than play late-inning D at the ML minimum. “[H]its better than 95% of pitchers” isn’t a qualifier for anyone WHO ISN’T A PITCHER. (Heck, just ask Micah Owings how much of a qualifier it is for an =actual= pitcher.)
They weren’t overpriced… until the DBacks signed ’em. Teams weren’t exactly falling over each other in their rush to add zeroes to Bloomquist’s bank book. A week ago, Willie was facing the very likely scenario of accepting a minor league invite with no guaranteed nothing. He likely could have been had for very near the MLB minimum for a veteran.
Although this brings up another question: why spend so much money on bad players when you could put that money to use on one =good= one? Why not take the dollars given to Blanco, Mora, Bloomquist, Putz, Blum and Nady (avg. ann. value: $11.1M, and that’s not even including the $4.25M guarantee for Zach Duke) and pick up an impact bat for left? Are FAs so afraid of the organization that Towers couldn’t entice anyone even remotely good for that sum? That the only way even bad players can be reeled in is to overpay wildly?
No organization operates =that= shoddily. (Well, OK, maybe the Dodgers. But that’s a very recent phenomenon with a very specific cause.)
Is it the Proven Veteran fallacy run amok? Towers was known for recycling past-its-prime talent in his first half-decade or so of GMship (before organizational poverty in SD forced a change in philosophy), and Gibson cut his teeth in the major leagues under the tutelage of one of history’s greatest boosters of the PV in Sparky Anderson. Consider also that these two are still wedded to other ancient and long-disproven baseball myths (e.g., Strikeouts Are Evil, a misguided belief on the AZ braintrust’s part for which the Orioles are very happy indeed) and it may just be the case that bad old memes and bad old habits of mind are the underlying problem here.
He’s an ASU grad, maybe people will buy tickets to watch Willie play three different positions in one game. The double switch options are endless!
stunning that this stiff is still in the league