I told myself that in the very first line of that last post, and look what happens. Sure, it seems that Rafael Furcal’s agents completely misled the Braves and I can’t ever remember a situation where so many outlets had called a signing a done deal only to have it completely fall apart, but isn’t it just more fun to blame Rosenthal?
Anyway, that’s not important; what is important is that the Dodgers have their shortstop back, although I’m not sure I’ll totally believe it until Opening Day, the way things have gone the last few days. First things first, ESPN has the contract details: $6.5m in 2009, $8.5m in 2010, $12m in 2011, and a $13m vesting option for 2012 if he puts up 600 plate appearances in 2011 – along with a $3m bonus at the end of the contract. Not expressly stated there would be, “backloaded so that we can finish blowing millions of dollars on Andruw Jones and Jason Schmidt in 2009″.
There’s so much win going on here:
* No more Jack Wilson rumors! No more nightmares of Angel Berroa as the starting SS! Unlike in the outfield, where there’s plenty of non-Manny outfielders should we lose out on our favorite dreadlocked manchild, there was absolutely nothing else available at shortstop. I’ve mentioned this about, oh, ten million times, so I won’t bore you with it again. Just sleep soundly tonight knowing that “James McDonald and Chin-Lung Hu to Pittsburgh for Jack Wilson” is not going to ruin your Christmas this year.
* No worry of Juan Pierre leading off! Don’t believe how real of a danger this is? “But MSTI,” you say. “Torre ended the year leading off with Matt Kemp much of the time.” Oh yeah? Check this out, homeboy. Furcal went down in early May, and Pierre led off every single game until he too was injured in late June. When he returned on July 25th, he immediately was placed back into the leadoff spot for the next week until Manny arrived just before the deadline and cost Pierre his starting role. Even so, he still led off in each of his next seven starts, spread out as they were. The point here isn’t just that Juan Pierre’s a terrible leadoff hitter (you should know this already), but that Joe Torre loves a Bonafide Base-Stealing Leadoff Man ™, OBP be damned. Without Furcal, the only things that kept Pierre from sucking the life out of the top spot was his own knee injury and one of the top ten hitters in history pushing him to the bench. With Manny’s return up in the air, do you really think Torre would be able to resist the temptation? No, me neither.
* Great middle IF depth/trade chips! Did anyone feel comfortable handing the SS job to Chin-Lung Hu or Ivan DeJesus, Jr.? Of course not. But now we either have an absolutely fantastic duo in AAA, or have Hu be an excellent defensive replacement for DeWitt/caddy for Furcal. Much better than Hu being the Opening Day SS… or on a flight to Pittsburgh.
* A player who clearly wanted to be a Dodger! Fine, if the fourth year vests, the total salary will be higher – but how many times can you remember a player turning down more guaranteed years? Furcal had four solid years in hands from Oakland, and preferred to come back to Los Angeles. Call me a sucker, but I like that.
* Less guaranteed money than his last deal! Obviously the back injury kept the offers down some. But he signed after 2005 for 3 years, $39 million. All that’s guaranteed right now is 3 years, $ 33 million. I don’t think you could have found someone who’d bet you 33 cents that you’d sign him for less money than the first deal at the time.
I’m not blind to the risk, of course. Back injuries are notoriously hard to predict, and it’s not like it’s the only physical ailment he’s had. So is there a change he could hurt himself again and we repeat 2008? Absolutely. It’s a risk, and risk is not something Ned Colletti’s done very well with free agency signings. But all things considered – what it’d mean for the lineup and whomever else we’d see at shortstop – it’s a risk worth taking.
So I say, well done, Ned. Now get us a power hitter, starting pitcher, and move Pierre. Hey, who said being a general manager was easy?