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What They Said When The Mariners Signed Silva

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Former Mariners GM Bill Bavasi signed Carlos Silva to a four-year, $48MM deal in December of 2007.  Two years later, Jack Zduriencik sent Silva and $9MM to the Cubs for Milton Bradley in a bad contract swap.  Yesterday, Silva was released by the Cubs with $13.5MM remaining on the contract.  Silva, known as an innings eater at the time of the signing, has provided a 5.82 ERA over 296 2/3 frames over the last three years.  Let's see what was being said at the time of the signing…

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Tim Dierkes, MLB Trade Rumors

This is the new price of a big league innings eater.  Silva may not be anything special, but he's shown the ability to eat American League innings.  Those guys don't grow on trees.

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Dave Cameron, U.S.S. Mariner

The strike throwing, no outpitch hurler is just a very easy skillset to find in a pitcher. Throwing a huge amount of money at Carlos Silva simply because he’s proven is a gigantic waste of resources.

This was actually written before the Mariners signed Silva, but it still sums up Cameron's evaluation of the deal.

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Jeff Sullivan, Lookout Landing

There's no doubt in my mind that this is a financially irresponsible contract, and that you could get 90-100% of Silva's production going forward from someone else for a tiny fraction of the price. Of that I don't think there's any question. But overpaying is nothing new for this team, and at the end of the day, I would so much rather pay too much money than give away too much talent.

Note: this was Jeff coming to terms with the deal, after saying worse things about it previously.

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Geoff Baker, Seattle Times

Did the M's truly overpay for Silva? We'll know the answer in a couple of years if he misses a season with a blown out elbow ligament. But if he stays healthy, the way Washburn and Batista have to this point, you get a slightly above-average pitcher for what should be a below-market rate.

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Keith Law, ESPN

If we set the length of the contract aside for a moment, the signing of Carlos Silva makes some sense…The contract itself, however, is lunacy…While he's likely to be an immediate upgrade over the internal options Seattle had, the odds of him turning out to be a good investment over a four-year period — even before we consider the chance he suffers a major injury — are low, and if the Mariners' defense declines via a trade of Adam Jones or Adrian Beltre, Silva's performance will take a direct hit.

The three quotes I pulled out from Law's blog post are best read in context, if you have ESPN Insider.  The entire post is a good read.

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Silva ended up performing worse than any of us thought he would.  Most writers agreed when he signed that he made the Mariners better, which never happened.  Aside from missing the mark on Silva's ability to continue eating innings, I also failed to recognize that his contract was an outlier rather than the new standard for innings eaters.  Three years later, innings eater types are only getting $4-8MM per year and one or two years.

Indians Release Doug Mathis

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Righty Doug Mathis requested and was granted his unconditional release, Indians GM Chris Antonetti told MLB.com's Jordan Bastian (Twitter link).  He'd been reassigned to the minors three days ago.

Mathis, 27, was signed by the Indians to a minor league deal in early January.  At Triple-A, mostly as a starter, he posted a 5.66 ERA, 5.5 K/9, 3.1 BB/9, and 0.7 HR/9 in 89 innings last year.  He was worse with the Rangers in 22 1/3 relief innings, allowing seven home runs and 30 hits.

Indians Will Try To Trade Jayson Nix

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The Indians will attempt to trade infielder Jayson Nix, tweets Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.  If they fail, he'll be designated for assignment.  Nix is out of options and can decline an outright assignment to the minors if he does clear waivers.

Nix, 28, hit .224/.281/.396 with 14 home runs in 363 plate appearances for the White Sox and Indians last year, playing mostly second and third base.  He was in the mix this spring for a backup infield job with the Tribe, but Adam Everett won that battle.

Rays Return Cesar Cabral To Red Sox

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The Rays returned Rule 5 pick Cesar Cabral to the Red Sox, tweets WEEI's Rob Bradford.  The lefty will report to minor league camp tomorrow.  The Rays claimed Cabral in the December draft, but he also had a brief stop with the Blue Jays this spring.

Cabral, 22, posted strong peripheral stats in 48 relief innings at High-A ball last year, but 60 hits allowed led to a 5.81 ERA.

Orioles Release Randy Winn

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Outfielder Randy Winn asked for and was granted his unconditional release, according to an Orioles press release.  Winn was one of eight cuts made today, as Nolan Reimold was optioned to Triple-A while Clay Rapada, Mark Hendrickson, David Riske, Ryan Drese, Pat Egan, and Nick Green were assigned to minor league camp.  As previously noted, Hendrickson and Riske can opt out.  The Orioles currently have 39 players on their 40-man roster and 28 in camp.

Winn, 36, hit .239/.307/.356 in 233 plate appearances for the Yankees and Cardinals last year, tallying 401 outfield innings.  He signed a minor league deal with the Orioles in early February.

Royals Acquire Matt Treanor

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The Royals acquired catcher Matt Treanor from the Rangers for cash considerations, tweets Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star.  The acquisition fills up the Royals' 40-man roster, a press release notes.

Treanor, 35, hit .211/.287/.308 in 272 plate appearances for the Rangers last year, leading the team with 614 2/3 innings caught.  He re-signed for $850K in December to back up Yorvit Torrealba, but the Rangers acquired Mike Napoli in late January.  The move opens up a 40-man roster spot for the Rangers and also a 25-man spot, which makes it easier to retain Rule 5 pick Mason Tobin or Chris Davis.

The Royals' Treanor acquisition comes two days after veteran Jason Kendall told MLB.com's Dick Kaegel his tentative return date from September shoulder surgery is now late April.  Brayan Pena and Lucas May, both out of options, have been battling for Opening Day catching spots.  Treanor, by the way, was originally drafted by the Royals in 1994.

Orioles Moves: Hendrickson, Riske, VandenHurk

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The Orioles are paring down their roster today; here's the latest:

  • Lefty Mark Hendrickson is among the team's cuts, tweets MLB.com's Brittany Ghiroli.  Hendrickson can opt out rather than report to the minors.  Given his success against lefties, he should be able to find work in the big leagues.
  • Reliever David Riske is also one of today's cuts, reports Ghiroli.  She says Riske left camp for personal reasons, and the team isn't sure whether he'll join them in Triple-A.  He too has the ability to opt out. 
  • Righty Rick VandenHurk has been cut, reports Ghiroli.  Since the Dutchman is out of options, he'll have to clear waivers to remain with the organization.  The O's snagged VandenHurk at last year's trade deadline in the Will Ohman deal.

AL East Notes: Red Sox, Showalter, Sabathia

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Among AL East clubs, only the Yankees will play on the season's first day Thursday.  Here's the latest from the division…

Offseason In Review: New York Yankees

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The Yankees are next in our Offseason In Review series.

Major League Signings

Notable Minor League Signings

International Signings

  • Juan Carlos Paniagua, Yadil Mujica, Freiter Marte, Wilmer Romero

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Trades and Claims

Notable Losses

Summary

Only the Yankees can spend $130MM on free agents and have it seem like they didn't do much during the offseason.  Cliff Lee spurned the team's huge offer, but they were able to retain future Hall of Famers Jeter and Rivera while improving the bullpen.

Jeter

The Yankees ended up paying about twice what Jeter is probably worth in a strictly baseball sense, after a few unnecessary verbal jabs from both sides.  I don't have a problem with it; they can afford to overpay, and they didn't have a superior alternative at shortstop.  The price to keep Rivera was steep as well, yet he remains among the game's best relievers into his 40s.  Perhaps the Yankees found it reassuring that multiple teams were willing to offer Rivera three guaranteed years, which suggests they weren't forced to overpay just for being the Yankees.

The mystery team actually signed Lee, with the Phillies inking him to a five-year, $120MM deal in mid-December. At $148MM over seven years, the Yankees offered Lee more guaranteed money than the Rangers or Phillies.  Still, the Phillies seemingly offered the biggest salary at $24MM a year.  Had the Yankees extended themselves to $150MM over six years, they might have gotten their man – even if they represented his second or third choice.  With Pettitte's status an unknown at the time, going the extra mile for Lee still would have been the right move.  The Yankees cannot buy or trade for high-quality starting pitching if it just isn't there, and I'm not convinced this year's trade market will feature even a #2-type starter.

Carl Crawford and Jayson Werth were already off the board by the time Lee signed, and Adrian Beltre would have been an even tougher fit, so there weren't any big names left for the Yankees to pursue.  The starting pitching market was especially bleak at that point, but credit GM Brian Cashman for setting aside a potential fan backlash and exploring a reunion with Carl Pavano.

Cashman chose not to pursue Zack Greinke, who secretly met with the GM during the Winter Meetings to try to convince him he'd thrive in New York.  Jon Heyman's article implies Cashman bowed out mainly because he thought Greinke wasn't a good fit with the club, rather than balking at the Royals' asking price.  If true, it's interesting that Cashman felt Greinke was a bad fit but Pavano was a good one, but of course the stakes were higher with Greinke. 

Assuming a Matt Garza trade would have made both the Rays and Yankees uneasy, Cashman was out of options on starting pitching.  His plan at that point was apparently to toss a mere $14MM at complementary pieces Feliciano, Martin, and Jones.  There's something to be said for committing two years to Feliciano instead of three, and the Yankees will need a strong bullpen if their fourth and fifth starters consistently fail to go deep into games.  Even if Cashman wasn't on board, the Soriano signing certainly gives the team a much stronger bullpen.  The dual opt-outs are the smallest concern with that contract, which I explained in a separate post.

The Yankees' minor league signings include former big names Chavez, Colon, Garcia, Millwood, and Prior.  There are spring indications that several of them can have positive contributions for the big league club in 2011.  The main goal may be to wring a couple of good months out of the rotation candidates.

Most likely we'll hear the Yankees connected to every starting pitcher with a pulse throughout the season, after which the team's rotation could be further depleted if C.C. Sabathia opts out.  Problem is, it's hard to identify even one front-end starter who projects to be available in July.  The Yankees may need one or two of their in-house starters to exceed expectations if they are to go deep into the playoffs this year.

Photo courtesy of Icon SMI.

MLBTR Originals: 3/20/11 – 3/27/11

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The 2011 regular season is now less than 90 hours away, so let's kill some time and recap MLBTR's original content from the last seven days…

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