Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
December 02, 2006
Choi a Ray

Rays of Light notes the new faces on the Devil Rays, minor league signees invited to spring training. One of them is Hee-Seop Choi and the author is upset the Rays are spending money on him:

Now with every move I find myself crunching the dollar figures as they pertain to the product. Back in the day, simply knowing that the Devil Rays were apparently acquiring Hee-Seop Choi would disappoint me plenty just because he is not a good baseball player. I know this statistically and in that he does not excite me in any way and I will not like it when he is on the field. I liked it when it was this simple.

But now I can't help weighing his statistics against the Rays' sickeningly-famous, limited payroll. I try to rationalize the $1.95 million the organization is accused of paying for him. But this one for me, even as one of the thousands of self-appointed team accountants, is a stumper. Why is Choi, who made $725,000 in 2006 as a backup first baseman, who got hurt and was sent down to AAA for the season where he hit .207, in line for such a raise? Stumped.

On the bright side, if this rumor does hold, I think that admitting I am stumped at this point may be the first step in the liberation from my self-inflicted immersion in the speculative and masochistic world of Devil Ray finance.

While I have to agree that the amount of money paid to Choi is way too high given his history, I was surprised by Hee-Seop being described as "not a good baseball player." If you look at his career, he basically had 95 good games for the Marlins in 2004. At that point, he was 25 and entering his peak years. But in the middle of that fine season the Dodgers acquired him and he did not perform well for them in 1 1/2 seasons. My feeling is that Los Angeles didn't give him a chance, but Choi also did not make the most of his opportunities, either.

He'll be 28 going into the 2007 season, so he's passed the point where he'll have a great career. But, if he can play every day and draw 80 walks, post a .370 OBA, he improves the Rays. He's worth the chance. But if he fails to make an impact again, I'll have to agree with Jon Wolfson that Choi is not a good player.


Posted by David Pinto at 11:16 AM | Players | TrackBack (0)
Comments

This opinion is factually flawed. Hee Seop Choi is not "in line for a raise", he was given a minor league contract that pays him only if he makes the 40 man roster, and he still doesn't even reach the seven figure mark if he does make the final roster. Choi is, as you pointed out David, not statistically a bad baseball player, and is a good option to have around just in case.

And "just in case" is right. With Juan Guzman, Greg Norton, Ty Wigginton, Elijah Dukes, Wes Bankston, and possibly Jorge Cantu all options to be the Rays' starting first baseman next year, Choi has little to no shot at making the final roster, and thus he will not get paid the major league salary. But Choi is an NRI, the Rays are spending no more on him as an NRI than any other minor league player.

I was originally confused on the guaranteed/non-guaranteed point, but once that was settled, I had no problem with this deal. If you want my take on the story from my piece at DRaysBay, please read my story at DRaysBay, or my colleague R.J.'s here

Posted by: Patrick Kennedy at December 2, 2006 03:29 PM

Choi seems to me like a guy who has some skills to contribute to a major league baseball team, but there's never been the matchup between his supply and the teams' demand. He can hit home runs and he can get bases on balls, but maybe not much beyond that. But there's plenty of guys on major league squads who can't walk or hit home runs, so he should be able to find somebody out there whose skills he complements.

Posted by: Adam Villani at December 3, 2006 04:54 AM
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