Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
January 05, 2009
Pat the Bat Sashays to Rays

Fox reports Pat Burrell agreed to a two-year contract with the Tampa Bay Rays:

The Rays, filling their need for a power hitter, are close to signing free-agent Pat Burrell to a two-year, $16 million contract, according to major-league sources.

Burrell, 32, will serve as the team's designated hitter. The Rays, nearing their payroll limit, could use some combination of Ben Zobrist, Gabe Gross and Fernando Perez in right field.

It's a great signing for the Rays. Burrell is taking a pay cut here (his former deal was six years, $50 million), yet his OPS+ was consistently in the 120s for the last four years. He brings another great on-base average to the Rays, who keep moving away from the hacker model they used for so many years. Pat's big draw back in Philly was his defense, and that won't be a problem at designated hitter. I'm very surprised they got him for so little money, if indeed that number is correct. That's not good news for Abreu, Dunn and Manny Ramirez.

Hat tip, BallHype.


Posted by David Pinto at 03:38 PM | Free Agents | TrackBack (0)
Comments

or they could sign dunn and completely dominate the east

Posted by: shthar at January 5, 2009 06:34 PM

Didn't they trade for Matt Joyce to play RF?

Posted by: Aaron at January 5, 2009 07:25 PM

If he is the everyday DH I think he'll hit 30 HR and help them - I don't know how more Dunn would have cost but they could have batted Pena, Eva, Dunn 3-4-5 and really had a big middle of the order.

Posted by: bandit at January 5, 2009 08:30 PM

I love the signing for the Rays. Cheap and gives them a complete team now with another hitter, and one who hits lefties incredibly with a .950 OPS last year. The AL WS team just got stronger.

Tom
http://thetraderarena.today.com

Posted by: Tom at January 5, 2009 10:07 PM

check this out:

"David Price Should Pitch In AAA This Season"

lvironpigs.wordpress.com

Posted by: rays fan at January 8, 2009 06:55 PM
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