According to Dylan Hernandez of the L.A. Times, the Dodgers were not disillusioned by Rafael Furcal’s errors last night. GM Ned Colletti said he’d like to have Furcal back. Furcal said he wants to come back. So if all goes according to plan, the best free agent-eligible shortstop will never hit the open market.
Back in December of 2005, Furcal received a four-year offers but chose the Dodgers’ three-year offer at more money per year. He missed most of ’08 with a back injury, so maybe he’ll take a similar approach this winter and sign for one year to re-establish himself. The Dodgers would probably prefer one year with a 2010 option and plenty of incentive-based money.
On the other hand, we could have a Magglio Ordonez situation. When Maggs signed in January of ’05, he was coming off a 222 plate appearance season due to knee problems. Ordonez had shock wave treatment in Austria on the knee and hired Scott Boras that winter. Boras started out asking for seven years for the 31 year-old, and ended up getting five guaranteed with reasonable vesting options for two more seasons. The Tigers would’ve been able to void the contract after one year if Ordonez spent 25+ days on the DL for recurrence of the knee injury.
