Jason Giambi officially signed a one-year deal worth $1.75MM to return to the Rockies as a pinch hitter and occasional first baseman. He excelled in Denver last summer, hitting .385/.529/.692 as a pinch hitter and .292/.452/.583 overall (small sample size warnings apply). The former AL MVP hit poorly in Oakland last year, so his 2009 OPS was a career-low .725.
Andrew Marchand of 1050 ESPN Radio first reported that a deal was close, Jon Heyman of SI.com tweeted that it was official and Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports tweeted the value of the contract.
We heard that the Rockies were interested in free agents Orlando Cabrera and Orlando Hudson, too.
Ben Nicholson-Smith contributed to this post.
“Small sample size warnings apply”
LOL, 24 at bats, I’ll say small sample size indeed.
Jason Giambi is horrible. Rockies will have a nice squad this year though and will look real good if they get Hudson. They will challenge the Dodgers for the west.
Well, compare how well Giambi did for the Rockies to how well Thome worked out for your Dodgers. Giambi will be awesome to have in Colorado again. He was nothing but clutch coming off the bench for us.
Okay dude, where in my comment did I say anything good about Thome, like he was a better pick up. Oh thats right I didnt, Thome stinks just like Giambi.
Just saying that Giambi was actually valuable to the Rockies last year and can continue to be valuable again this year. Giambi was one of the best clutch hitters while he was with the Rockies last year. Granted, small sample size, but every pinch hitter has a relatively small sample size.
Don’t hate because your late season acquisition sucked last year.
Disagree. The Giants and Dodgers will be the ones challenging the Rockies for the West title. They’ve got a helluva team (and this signing has very little to do with that).
Giambi is Italian for June DFA
Rockies will probably sign Orlando Hudson too since his only other suitor is the Nationals. I think signing Giambi is a good idea, he’ll be great off the bench.
Hudson? What about EY2?
i think that EYJ should be placed in AAA for just one more year till we see how his real talent develops. Signing Orlando Hudson for a one year deal would be a great idea, and barmes can be put into a super utility role. Wouldn’t that solve a lot of problems?
Fangraphs has Hudson as being only a slight upgrade to Barmes next year, with his bat making up for the loss of Barmes’ defense. I can see your point though, as Barmes would make a better bench player than what is available. I guess it is the baseball fan in me that would love to see Fowler and EY batting 1-2. Maybe someday…
I guess it is the rockies top priority in recent years to let their all star veterans go for unproven prospects. They are a complete farm system team. (but hey, which manager wouldn’t want 92 wins with an all prospect team?) Anyhow, EYJ is a horrible offense guy. He can’t hit for average and DEFINITELY not power. All I know is that he has very good speed and defense. Who knows. EYJ is turning 25 this may. He’s getting older
EY hit poorly in the bigs last year, but hes never hit under .290 or had less than 46 swipes in the minors, I’d love to have him in the Cardinal system. Show your boy some love, I think you may be underestimating him.
I think it was a good sigining for 1.5m.
Dodgers1111, Jim Thome has been one of the better left handed power threats in the decade he probably go in the hall of fame and he might not hit for high average but the dude can still rake , if he has full playing time he will give you your 30 hrs so im not sure how you say he sucks his defense does. and as for giambi i cant say to much but his last year in New York he hit 32 hrs with i believe 95 rbis yea the average was like 249 , he should have been able to at least platoon somewhere but those numbers were in the past best of luck to jason
how will this affect the left handed ph spot Seth Smith held last year?
I really think the Rox need to try to move Hawpe. I’ve been saying for a while I’d love to see a package of Hawpe and Barmes for Uggla. Get Smith in the line up every other day instead of every 4th or 5th day.
seth smith would probably hit 25-30 home runs on any other team. spilborghs can’t. I wish the rockies would realize that. and i absolutely don’t want uggla on the rockies. he may hit 30 hrs a year, but you won’t see him hit more than 40 hrs or bat better than .275 at coors. humidor was a curse.
“humidor was a curse”. Are you kidding? The humidor makes the pitching staff competitve. Really, Aaron Cook and Jeff Francis without the humidor at Coors would look horrible. The team is competitive as is, I wouldn’t go back to 12-10 slugfests for anything.
i agree with you…i do not want to see uggla in a Rox uni…we could get something much better in return for package of hawpe and barmes. I would say they should try to find a 4th or 5th rotation/long reliever guy and a super utlilty that can play 3rd/1st and a little bit of OF for hawpe….that would be the best option if hawpe were to be traded.
I mean pretty much the rockies were the only ones that wanted him back, I mean what team would want his .194 average?
his .194 average was what he put up in an Oakland A’s uni….he was a completely differant player for the Rox.
jason giambi could be a good pinch hitter but that’s just about it