Transaction Report 1/29/05
Transaction
The Move-The Devil Rays resigned reliever Jesus Colome
The Terms-One year for $815,000
The Details-There really isn't many. The Rays and Colome came to terms on a one year deal to avoid arbitration. The Rays came more to Colome's side of things, as the arbitration figures exchanged last week had the Rays offering Colome $700,000, and Colome requesting $850,000. The deal, which also includes performance incentives, leaves the Rays set to go to arbitration with only three players, C Josh Paul, 1B Travis Lee, and P Travis Harper.
The Analysis-My opinion of this move depends on a lot of things that have nothing to do with stats or salary figures. If you were to leave this deal as it appears, $815,000 for a subpar reliever, but one with potential than I see nothing wrong with the move. However, if many of you will remember, Colome has more than once expressed his desire to be outside of the Devil Rays organization. Now, the team does not need people who don't want to be hear, let's get that clear. We tossed Lou overboard and Huff has been shutting his mouth under threat of trade. So the new DRO is not afraid to expel people who are negative influences. And that leads me to believe that they have talked things out with Jesus and that the new regime pleases him and convinced him that we do, in fact, have a bright future, one dedicated to winning. If this is so, than I have no problems with the deal. And though this is the likely senario, if Jesus does not want to be here, then we shoulkd grant his wish.....and trade him to some place like South Florida or Kansas City.
As for the performance side of things, Jesus appears well worth $815k, but little more. Colome has never been truly Brazelton-awful, except for his awful 2002, but he has only been competant for parts of two years, 2001 and 2004. Other than that, his ERA has languished somewhere near the 4.50 range, and though his 1.11 WHIP in 2004 was impressive, as was his 1.27 total in 2001, his other years have been marked by considerably higher numbers, and an across the board poor strikeout to walk ratio. Still, Jesus does have potential, and if he can revert back to his 2004 numbers, he is well worth the $815k, and if he doesn't, we didn't lose much. That has been the theme of this offseason, and Colome only adds to it.
Sources: St. Petersburg Times, The Baseball Cube
Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday to Devil Rays hurler Doug Waechter, who turned 25 on Saturday. Hopefully the next year will be a breakout for Dougie as he solidifies his spot in either the rotation or long relief for years to come.