The Giants and Javier Lopez have agreed to a two-year, $8.5MM contract, a person with knowledge of the negotiations told The Associated Press. The money will be divided evenly in each year as the left-handed reliever will earn $4.25MM in 2012 and '13.
Lopez had a base salary of $2.375MM in 2011 and was two innings short of earning a $25K bonus for reaching 55 innings. In 53 innings of work this year, Lopez registered a 2.72 ERA with 6.8 K/9 and 4.4 BB/9. The 34-year-old was expected to receive plenty of interest on the open market from teams in search of a quality matchup lefty.
The Giants now have to decide on the $5MM option for fellow lefty reliever Jeremy Affeldt. Sabean expects to retain Affeldt even if the club declines his option and renegotiates a new contract. The Giants have until the end of the day Monday to either exercise the option or pay a $500K buyout.
Good signing. This guy was nasty in the 2010 playoffs. Quality left handed relievers are really hard to come by.
He basically got Affeldts last contract. Wonder what this means for Jeremy?
It’s a bit pricey, but Lopez was solid.
Seems lke a high price to pay…
Good reliever, but a bit much.
Excited to see a signing though!
As am I.
Our first signing of the offseason!
Damn it, this is the only guy I wanted the Phillies to sign.
I would have liked to see him in Philly too.
So would Ryan Howard.
You can say that about pretty much any left hander against Ryan Howard.
This guy is a lefty-out-machine. Love this signing. He’s a key component to that pen.
Javy has had a decent couple of seasons and have to wonder if Okajima could fool hitters by switching leagues for 2-3 seasons also with his delivery? neither throws anything particularly nasty and just use a funky delivery to fool hitters. Always wondered why nobody wanted Oki-J when Boston removed him from the 40 man last year and was willing to ick up almost everything remaining on his 1.7m contract.
Some NL team might want to take a flyer with a minor league deal over the winter, bring him to ST and see if they can find a spot for him.
Good point, there must have been something that we didn’t know. Injury, decrease of velocity, age catching up to his delivery, lack of break on pitches, loss of location who knows. Still don’t understand why at least an NL team wouldn’t bring him in especially for the fact that Boston would basically pay his whole contract.
This surprised me. Especially the money, I thought he was going to go. I still think Affeldt will be back because Sabean was pretty adamant about him when the question was raised.
Damn, was hoping the yankees could get their claws on this left-hander. Good signing though for the Giants,he’s an instrumental part of their bullpen and will keep neutralizing left-handed hitters.
If they bring back affeldt for 5 million that will be 9.25 million for 2 lefty specialists. That’s a lot to pay even though they are really good.
good signing to start the Hot Stove season
Good sign!! Now get affeldt back too
Signing a LOOGY for that much is absolutely ridiculous. I understand the need to have a good lefty specialist in your bullpen, but this is exactly how NOT to build a bullpen.
ooook and what was the giants’ bullpen era last season… and the season before? where did their staff rank in every pitching category? i think they know exactly how to build a bullepn.
8M for a loogy?