Rays Interested in Scott Dohmann?

A newspaper-only article in Sunday's edition of the St. Petersburg Times reports that the Rays could have interest in signing reliever Scott Dohmann, the former Rockie who was not tendered a contract by Kansas City. The team thinks he could be a good signing late in the offseason, while upgrading the bullpen. Why they think this, I don't know.

D'oh!-mann

Aside from the simplistic "why would we want a guy who the Royals let go", the statistics further lend doubt as to why we would make this signing. Dohmann, 29 on February 13th, was drafted by the Rockies organization in the 6th round of the 2000 amateur draft, split last season between Colorado and Kansas City, having been traded to the Royals along with Jeremy Affeldt and Denny Bautista.

So, you ask, why would we want him? Good question. To be fair, Dohmann has a track record of consistently high K/9 rates. In three years in the major leagues, his career average K/9 is 9.19, and his career low last year was 8.19. However he also has an aversion to control, as evidenced by his 5.10 career BB/9 and 6.14 mark last year. He also has a 1.65 career HR/9 and 1.63 career WHIP.

So with all that, why would we want him? This really doesn't please me to hear that the team is trying to cover the failed free agent runs at Octavio Dotel and David Riske with vastly inferior personnel. The constant stream of dead end relievers needs to stop. Brian Meadows, Scott Dohmann, six of one, a half dozen of the other. The spot that would go to Dohmann needs to instead be given to a young prospect who may put up poor stats, but at least have a future that would benefit from major league playing time. The obligatory veteran bullpen pitcher shouldn't be. It doesn't help the team's development, Dohmann isn't even better statistically than our other options. Signing Dohmann and giving him a bullpen spot would be unacceptable. The team needs to move beyond that. If you aren't going to upgrade your bullpen, don't make it worse by robbing a young player with a future of a spot on the team.

Also...USA Today's Bob Nightengale reports that the Yankees will trade starter Randy Johnson to the Arizona Diamondbacks sometime this week, citing sources from both teams. The actual trade package has apparently been agreed upon, as two minor leaguers and a relief pitcher will apparently head to New York for Johnson, however the holdup is over the amount of Johnson's 2007 salary New York will pay.