February 08, 2009
More than the Middle
The Kansas City Royals settle with Mark Teahen for way above the midpoint:
Teahen earned $2,337,500 last year and asked for $3.85 million in arbitration when he exchanged proposed salaries with the Royals last month. The team offered $2.75 million.
He gets $3.575 million from the Royals. Mark's a below average player. It seems to me unlikely that the Royals had much of a chance of losing that case. Maybe, as they are talking about moving Mark to second base, they thought the transition would go better if they made a generous settlement.
So they just gave $2.3 million to a guy who'll probably post a 90-95 OPS+? And a month ago they signed Bloomquist for $3.1 million, who'll hopefully post a 90 OPS+. I don't like the moves KC's making this off season at all.
FWIW, the team's offer was reportedly $3.05 million, not $2.75. Should he have been non-tendered? Probably. But once he wasn't, they were stuck. And at least they're going to give him a chance to provide some value, letting him compete for the 2b job. Maybe they get lucky like the Pirates did in making Doumit a full-time Catcher, and build value where there was none.