You probably know by now that few things interest me more than trades, signings, and other roster moves. I love seeing how all the pieces fit together, and whether value was added based on the cost (whether in dollars or players) of the new arrival. It’s always fun to analyze when it comes to that; in many ways, for me, the off-season is a lot more fun than the actual season.

Well, this isn’t one of those times, because even though the Dodgers are about to make a move today, any real analysis is just going to make me sad.

The Dodgers are close to re-signing right-handed reliever Mike MacDougal, who would round out their bullpen, to a one-year, $1 million contract.

Shiny ERA strikes again! This move has been such a fait acompli for such a long time that the only real surprise is that A) it took so long to actually happen and B) that it wasn’t for two guaranteed years. You know the story by now: MacDougal was fine as a non-roster invite, despite barely striking out more than he walked, constantly inflating the ERA of others by allowing their runners to score, and having a FIP of 3.96 that is far more accurate than that fancy 2.05 ERA. For a zero-risk warm body, fine. On any sort of guaranteed major league deal? Well, you’ll notice we haven’t heard a whole lot about other teams beating down his door, right? The fun part will be when he pitches exactly the same as he did in 2011, but his ERA balloons to 4.04, and people will complain about how he’s all of a sudden terrible.

I’m kidding, sort of, because one year and $1m is practically nothing these days. It’s just about the lowest amount you can even give a player with MacDougal’s experience, and when he’s inevitably DFA’d by July, it won’t be anything worth complaining about. But hey, at least he’ll be 35 in June.

Update: Per a team press release, the deal is done, and includes a team option for 2013.