Brian Shouse Officially Signs With Rays; Juan Salas DFA

We finally have an official deal after almost two weeks of waiting. The deal is for 1 yr worth $1.35 million with an option for 2010 at $1.90 million or a buyout of 200k.  Shouse was worth 0.4 WAR last year or $1.8 million dollars. His overall numbers took a hit because of the way he was used. For some reason, he had more PA's vs. right handed batters (108) than left handed batters(104). That is bullpen mismanagement 101 and part of the reason Ned Yost is no longer a manager.

To make room for Shouse, The Rays have DFA'd Juan Salas, who probably will be picked up by another team. Salas had excellent minor league numbers, but never translated them into major league sucess. He pitched in a career high 34 games in 2007 and while his ERA was 3.72, his FIP was 6.13. Good luck to the Juice

For the Rays, Shouse is an upgrade over Trever Miller, who served as the team's loogy last year. Shouse at $1.35 million is below market value and also cheaper than Miller, who received a 1yr/~2 million dollar deal with the Cardinals this off season. Here is a breakdown of their numbers vs LHB.

Shouse is pretty much death to a left handed batter, so should see plenty of David Ortiz this year. He also joins Troy Percival as the old men on the young Rays team. In fact when camp opens, they will be playing along side Tim Beckham, who was just six months old when they were drafted in 1990

Here is our original post on the signing and welcome to the Rays Mr. Shouse

And here is Salas' DRB2009 profile:

Juan Salas RHP

Salas has had much success in the minor leagues, but that hasn't yet translated to the majors.  He dominated AA and AAA in 2006 with K/9 rates of 13.50 and 10.36 before getting called up and throwing 10 innings for the big club.  Salas threw most of his 2007 innings in the majors, racking up a 3.72 ERA but an ugly 6.13 FIP and low 6.44 K/9. His 2008 season was marred by visa problems that saw him miss a chunk of the start of the season, and a bout with epileptic seizures.  He did throw 44.2IP in AAA with a 2.62 ERA and 2.28 FIP while maintaining a K/9 of over 10(10.68), but never really got a shot with at the major league level throwing just 6.1 innings.