Rays To Sign Brian Shouse?

But if you look at the deals, Fuentes and Wood signed off reliever deals to closer deals. Farnsworth got way too much – but it was less than he was making before. A couple of lefties got good deals early – Marte and Affeldt e.g. K-Rd’s salary in the first year of his deal is less than 2008. Rhodes and Park made good off cheap minors deals.

But plenty of relievers have taken cuts too. Howry got a relatively good deal, but it was a large cut from ’08. Eyre too – but also a big cut. Genius Ed Wade resigned LT Hawkins to a $3.5 deal, but even that , while way high (even though he did pitch well for Houston), was a slight cut from ’08. Springer just signed well – but still a small cut from ’08. Same for Mota, Embree, Bale, Trevor Hoffman.

It’s something – of the top 12 ‘08 salaries among potential FA’s heading into the offseason, ending with Smoltz at $14 MM, none have gotten an increase in salary (or better put, on salary plus prorated bonus) from ‘08 to ’09. 3 remain unsigned, Abreu ($16), Sexson ($15.5), and Manny ($18.95). Only Manny has a chance of coming out with a raise. It’s a bloodbath up there guys:

Giambi $23.45 MM to $5 MM, Hampton $16 MM to $2 MM, Pettitte $16 MM to $5.5 MM
Furcal $15.75 MM to $7.5 MM, Randy Johnson $15.1 MM to $8 MM, Thome (opt p/u) -$2.65 MM
Burrell $14.25 MM to $7 MM, and Smoltz $14 MM to $5.5 MM
Forgot C. Delgado, opt p/u -$4.0 MM

AJ Burnett breaks the streak at #13.

To continue through the $10 MM $ men:

unsigned Dunn $13.0 MM; uns. G. Anderson $12.6 MM; uns. F. Thomas $12.55 MM; increase for Teixeira; uns. Pudge, $12.4 MM; C. Jones opt p/u – $1.35 MM; uns. Sheets $12.15; Garland $12.0 to $6.25; uns. Pedro $11.8; ret. Moose $11.1; Pavano $11.0 to $1.5; increase for CC; Varitek $10.45 to $5; uns. Gagne $10; Inc for Lowe; ret. Maddux; ret. Morris; Renteria $10mm to $8 MM (still too much); K-Rod $10MM to $9.15 in 1st year of deal.

Maybe they should call it Almost Free Agency – yeah, I know. it’s still lots of cash.

Rosenthal

Varitek, 36, declined to accept the Red Sox’s offer of salary arbitration in December, an offer that would have landed him a non-guaranteed salary of $10 million or more next season…Boras’ concern that the Red Sox might have released Varitek in spring training and paid him only one-sixth of his salary was not without merit; an agent needs to consider all possibilities. Still, Boras’ rationale was probably far-fetched, maybe even revisionist history. He has accepted arbitration for other free-agent clients before.

I had never heard that before. I assume the contract become guaranteed when the player makes the team, but don’t know for sure.