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Scott Kazmir has signed a two year, $22 million deal with the Oakland Athletics, according to Jim Bowden of ESPN.
Kazmir agrees to 2yrs $22m deal with A's #Confirmed
— JIM BOWDEN (@JimBowdenESPNxm) December 2, 2013
MLB Trade Rumors filled in more details on the signing, and it will pay Kaz $11 million for each year.
My first thought was "This is a crazy market -- that's almost as much as David Price is set to make this year!" (Although it's not as close if you include Price's deferred salary.) My second thought was that maybe it's not as crazy as it sounds. Here are the Steamer projections for the two of them, both taken from FanGraphs.
| K% | BB% | ERA | FIP | |
| David Price | 21.5% | 6.1% | 3.45 | 3.27 |
| Scott Kazmir | 24.2% | 7.7% | 3.51 | 3.29 |
| Hiroki Kuroda | 19.1% | 5.8% | 3.61 | 3.37 |
That's not two players, you say. That's three. The Yankees apparently have an offer on the table to Hiroki Kuroda in the $15 to $16 million range, according to Andrew Marchand of ESPN New York. So who's the better deal?
Well, if you already own the rights to David Price, he is. If you would have to trade $75-$100 million in surplus value to earn the privilege of paying Price $13 million, then the answer is obviously Kazmir. On the bright side, the A's were never in the market for Price, so their signing of Kazmir means he can't go to one of the teams liable to overspend for Price's services.
One last thing to remember in evaluating this signing is the concept of risk. All of these players carry different sorts of risks. Kazmir's career was done and his velocity was gone. Then, he was able to work his way back through the independent leagues and post perhaps the best season of his career. David Price saw a velocity decrease and spent time on the disabled list last season. Hiroki Kuroda will be 39 years old. Adjust the Steamer projections however you wish, but keep risk in mind.
