Friday, December 13, 2013

Boone -- er -- Boom times for reliever market?

As if the dump truck full of money the Mariners drove to Robinson Cano's door wasn't evidence that MLB teams are flush with cash, take a look at what left-handed reliever Boone Logan just got.

Smile, Boone! You're rich!
If you only paid attention to Logan when he was on the White Sox, you might not have noticed he's been better since since those days of getting battered around U.S. Cellular Field. In fact, after pitching to a career 5.27 ERA and a staggering 1.69 WHIP with the Sox and Braves, Logan has had a 3.38 ERA over 176 innings with the Yankees the last four years.

That's why the Colorado Rockies have decided to give him a three-year, $16.5 million contract.

That's a lot of coin for a guy who you only really want to see face left-handed hitters (.243/.312/.378 career), and rarely face right-handers (.297/.397/.475). That's if the 1.6 HR/9 he allowed -- way above his career norm -- was just a blip, and not a reversion to his homer-happy results with the Sox. Baseball humidor or no, that won't play well in Colorado.

 Logan just got more money than Javier Lopez got from the Giants (3 years/$13 million), and Lopez was maybe better (2.38 ERA the last three years vs. 3.51 ERA for Logan, though Logan did work in the AL and was charged with facing left-handers that benefited from the Yankees' home park).

With a lot of relief pitchers left to sign, it's really too early to say yet if the market is going a little crazy. I don't think it's too early to say the Rockies probably overpaid for what Logan will be able to do for them.

No comments:

Post a Comment