JUPITER -- The Marlins saved at least $12 million by trading Kevin Gregg, Josh Willingham, Scott Olsen and Mike Jacobs, four arbitration-eligible players who have all signed with their new teams. Willingham was the last member of that alumni group to have his contract resolved when he and the Nationals settled Wednesday for $2.95 million.
The ink is also dry on Gregg (Cubs, $4.2 million), Olsen (Nationals, $2.8 million) and Jacobs (Royals, $3.25 million). The Jacobs deal proves once again that power pays. The one-dimensional first baseman (bad fielder, slow runner, low on-base percentage) clearly benefitted from the jetstream effect with his 32 home runs last season, nearly double his previous season's output. .
The one that I totally disagree with is Willingam AND Olsen for Bonaficio to an in-division rival nonetheless. The other's we could probably do without and give someone else a chance.
Posted by: Singer | February 19, 2009 at 12:22 PM
Willingham gets hurt all the time and Olsen is a 3-4 starter at best with a 500 record. Only good thing he does is eat innings. We have enough depth at SP with our front five along with our other guys competing (Vanden Hurk, Badenhop, West, ... ) While you can never have enough pitching, we got some good prospects to refill our farm system after so many call ups.
Posted by: John | February 20, 2009 at 09:22 AM