Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
December 09, 2007
French for "The Troy"

The Yankees tap LaTroy Hawkins for their bullpen:

The Yankees, rebuilding their setup corps, are close to signing free-agent right-hander LaTroy Hawkins to a one-year contract believed to be worth approximately $3.75 million, according to major-league sources.

Hawkins, 35, will help fill the void created by the loss of righty Luis Vizcaino, who declined salary arbitration from the Yankees, and righty Joba Chamberlain, who is expected to move into the starting rotation.

That's pretty cheap for a reliever these days. LaTroy isn't a big strikeout pitcher, but he has shown good control in his career. For the price, it's a very good move.


Posted by David Pinto at 03:28 PM | Free Agents | TrackBack (0)
Comments

It may be cheap, but that's only because of the hyper-inflated market for middle relievers -- a notoriously unreliable bunch. Teams are far better off developing their own young relievers, or finding the under-utilized Rafael Betancourts of the world, than signing the likes of LaTroy Hawkins, David Riske, and Chad Bradford to multi-million-dollar contracts. At least in Hawkins' case, it's only a one-year deal, so the Yankees deserve some credit there.

I realize that, on the scale of the Yankees' payroll, $3.75 million basically amounts to pocket change, but still. Signing veteran middle relievers like this is the roster equivalent of treading water.

Posted by: jvwalt at December 9, 2007 05:21 PM

Well at least he'll be getting plenty of work for the $3.75m

Posted by: Bandit at December 10, 2007 08:58 AM
Post a comment









Remember personal info?