Late Innings

Long story short, there were a flurry of moves made today. I’ll analyze each of them, however I wanted to talk about the big signing of the day, that is the Angels signing free agent closer Brian Fuentes.

Fuentes will get 8.5MM in 2009, and 9MM in 2010. There’s also a 9MM vesting option for him in 2011, based on the number of games that he finishes while as an Angel. As to whether this is a player option or team option, I’ll keep checking Cot’s.

I know many of the “saber"-friendly people hate the signings of closers, that is they value them at 5MM a year or what not based on the marginal revenue that they generate, I like this signing big time. Fuentes in my opinion was the best closer on the market. He’s far more durable than Francisco Rodriguez, and was outstanding in 2008. Fuentes was also an All Star in 2007.

The Angels paid Rodriguez 10MM in 2008 (as determined through a losing arbitration case), and they’ll essentially save 1.5MM in “closing costs” going forward. The market for closers has clearly dropped, however I was shocked about the option years between the two elite closers. Rodriguez’s option year is valued at 17.5MM (and is guaranteed after certain stipulations are met.) Fuentes’ is half of that. Again I cannot reiterate enough how good this signing is for the Angels. The main reason why, their stellar bullpen from last season is kept intact. Jose Arrendondo remains the top set up guy, and if Justin Speier can return to form and if Scott Shields remains effective, things can’t be any better for them. Now they just have to address that hole at first base…

In regards to free agent compensation, the Angels will have to surrender their first round pick in next year’s Amateur Draft now to the Rockies, who offered the Type A free agent salary arbitration, which Fuentes rejected. Things are incredibly complicated with the Angels and free agency, since they lost two Type A free agents so far in Mark Teixeira and Rodriguez. Since Teixeira was ranked higher by Elias than Rodriguez, the Yankees will be sending their first round draft pick to the Angels in next year’s draft as well.

Fuentes saved 111 games over the last four seasons for the Rockies. (David Zalubowski/AP)