Finally, some Free Agent Signings

There’s a reason why I haven’t mentioned much in the blog lately. Nothing’s been going on!

Finally, though. There’s some stuff to talk about. The biggest acquisition so far is Tim Hudson. He’s going back to the Bay Area, but this time it’s with a different team. Instead of the Oakland Athletics, where he began his career with, Hudson is going to San Francisco.

The Giants have agreed to a two-year, $23 million contract with Hudson, sources say. Hudson, 38, went 8-7 with a 3.97 ERA, a 1.0 WAR, and a 0.54 WASP in 2013. Hudson won Comeback Player of the Year in 2010, where he went 17-9 with a 2.83 ERA, and was runner-up to teammate Barry Zito for Cy Young in 2000.

But wait a minute, Evan! Didn’t you list Hudson as one of those free agent pitchers to watch out for? Why, yes I did! Why don’t I like this move? Because of Barry Zito.

Barry Zito started his career too with Oakland, and, along with Mark Mulder and Hudson, the three pitchers were the “Big Three” at the start of the century. As Hudson moved to the Braves, Zito moved to the Giants. And man did he pitch poorly.

Zito, 35, went 5-11 with a 5.74 ERA, a-2.6 WAR, and a -23.2 WASP in 2013. Yeah, that’s bad. In his seven year career with the Giants, he put up a 4.62 ERA, which was much worse than his 3.55 ERA in his seven year career with Oakland.

The Giants are losing Zito this year, so now the rotation will be Matt Cain, Madison Bumgarner, Tim Lincecum, and Hudson. They might lost Ryan Vogelsong, and are looking at Bronson Arroyo from the Reds to fill that spot.

I hope that Hudson does not turn out like Zito, but the more and more I look at it, the more it looks like that could be the case. The Giants are in a win-now situation, and after being the first team since the ‘98 Marlins to fall in last place after winning a World Series, they look to gain some ground back. Now they have the Dodgers and the rising D-Backs to fight in the division, though.

Color the Giants a darkhorse, because Hudson does have the chance to perform well, but the coin is most likely flipping to a bad performance. I think they could have made a better acquisition with their money.

On lighter news, the Phillies agreed Monday to re-sign catcher Carlos Ruiz to a three-year, $26 million deal. There is also a $4.5 million club option for the 2017 season of a $500K buyout.

Ruiz has been the longtime catcher for the Phillies, and will be the fourth-highest-paid catcher in baseball. He has a career .274/.358/.412 line, which is pretty good offensively for a catcher, and he is a pretty good defender. His numbers have died down, and he’s seen his number of games dwindle, but the 34-year old catcher still has stuff left in him.

Ruiz was one of my unnoticed hitters to watch out for. I think the Phillies made the right call with going back with him. He’s not too expensive, and he can put up solid numbers.

The question is: what will the teams that were interested in Ruiz do now? It seemed like the Colorado Rockies and Toronto Blue Jays expressed serious interest in Ruiz, and now it’s time to shop in a market that has a lot of catchers, but not a lot of cheap ones. Could they go after the top catcher in Brian McCann? We’ll just have to wait and see.

And of course, Robinson Cano talks. Cano is the biggest prize in this year’s free agency, but he wants a lot of money to go along. Cano wants a contract around $300 million, which is unheard of, and said that he would wait as long as he can until he got that deal. I think that he’s just talking to the media and he will be able to sign a lower deal.

One of Cano’s agents, Jay-Z (yes, I kid you not, Jay-Z) talked about Cano with the New York Mets. The Mets have expressed lots of interest in Cano, but have come out saying that they would not give him the $300 million contract that he wants. The Mets recently told sources that the team’s 2014 payroll is expected to be in the $85-90 million range.

It looks like the Mets and the Yankees are the frontrunners, but you never know about the Reds and their potential to switch out Brandon Phillips with Cano. Man that would be a scary right side of the infield with Joey Votto.

Finally, baseball is back on its feet after a boring week. The free agency signings have begun. Email me at statsbuddy42@gmail.com for any questions/comments/concerns.

-Evan Boyd