relief package

Relief Package

As news that Rafael Betancourt and the Indians have avoided the ugly

process of "exchanging numbers" and the ensuing negotiations by buying

out Senor Slo-Mo's arbitration years, to the tune of a 2 year deal

worth $5.4M, as well as the Indians holding a club option ($5M) for

what would have been Betancourt's first year of Free Agency (2010),

the Indians have further cemented their roster going forward by

ensuring that Betancourt remains in the fold for at least another 2

years.

In light of the recent deals meted out to relievers on the Free Agent

market (and realizing that a the situation of a player like

Betancourt, who was under the club's control for two more years even

before this deal due to his Major League service time, is completely

different than a player on the open market), the real coup in the deal

is the CLUB option for the 3rd year for only $5M. The protection that

the Indians retain in the chance that Betancourt's effectiveness wanes

in the first or second year (knocking firmly on wood) is something

that cannot be undervalued in the highly volatile world of relievers,

much less elite set-up men.

To wit, realizing that the "Hold" is a fairly new statistic (wherefore

art thou, GW RBI), it does measure the ability of a reliever to "hold"

a lead and transfer to a closer. While better, more complicated,

measures of relievers exist; for our purposes, consider the top hold

leaders from just the last few years:

2007

Brandon Lyon - ARI - 35

Heath Bell - SD - 34

Derrick Turnbow - MIL - 33

Jon Rauch - WAS - 33

Jonathon Broxton - LAD - 33

Rafael Betancourt - CLE - 31

2006

Scott Linebrink - SD - 36

Scot Shields - LAA - 31

Joel Zumaya - DET - 30

Aaron Heilman - NYM - 27

Juan Rincon - MIN - 26

Scott Proctor - NYY - 26

2005

Scot Shields - ANA - 33

Tom Gordon - NYY - 33

Scott Eyre - SF - 32

Ryan Madsen - PHI - 32

Julian Tavarez - StL - 32

Bob Howry - CLE - 29

2004

Tom Gordon - NYY - 36

Akinori Otsuka - SD - 34

Ray King - StL - 31

Chris Reitsma - ATL - 31

Salomon Torres - PIT - 30

Guillermo Mota - LAD/FLA - 30

2003

Octavio Dotel - HOU - 33

Brendan Donnelly - ANA - 29

Jason Grimsley - KC - 28

Paul Quantrill - LAD - 28

LaTroy Hawkins - MIN - 28

Tom Martin - LAD - 28

The lists, which contain few of the same names from year to year,

illustrate how relievers remain a volatile commodity and one that

really can't be counted on from one year to the next. The problem with

giving these players long-term deals (which is what they're demanding

now on the open market...even the marginal ones) is that if they do

regress, they are virtually unmovable and simply take up a spot in the

bullpen that could be filled by a more promising youngster cashing a

much smaller paycheck. It speaks to the importance of developing your

own players (whether they be relievers or otherwise) into MLB players,

as opposed to potentially overpaying for an extremely unstable

commodity.

Overpaying, you say?

How about the fact that the Brewers committed a combined $23M to Eric

Gagne and David Riske, while the South Siders gave Scott Linebrink a

4-year deal for $19M and Octavio Dotel a 2-year deal for $11M this

off-season in an attempt to fortify their bullpens. All are decent

pitchers, but none jump out as legitimate closers or even are would be

guaranteed to be viable set-up men for THIS season. However, with the

Brewers and White Sox bullpens being major question marks, with no

internal alternatives to exhaust, Milwaukee and Chicago simply

obtained the pitchers that they felt would best help their team,

regardless of cost.

Conversely, with the Indians boasting the likes of Rafael Perez,

Jensen Lewis, and Tom Mastny (with more young arms on the way), it

would seem that the Tribe will finally see some permanent help for

their bullpen coming up from the farm to stay, which puts them in the

enviable position of not having to explore the FA market as they have

in years past with...shall we say...mixed results. Having those

youngsters fill the pipeline at known salary numbers and with options

remaining in case of a regression is a luxury that cannot be

underestimated for a team that knows all too well what a Jose Jimenez

or Roberto Hernandez can (or more accurately, cannot) do.

But back to the impetus for the discussion, the deal for our presiding

judge of the bullpen (you know, because "Betancourt is in Session")

and the importance of the length of the deal. Some may argue that the

Indians should have included another option year or guaranteed the 3rd

year with a 4th year club option. However, it is important to remember

that Betancourt is no spring chicken due to his career starting as an

infielder (he was a 21-year-old SS for the Michigan Battle Cats),

spending some time in the Pacific Rim, and overcoming arm injuries

before finally settling in with the Tribe.

Betancourt will be 33 this year and 35 in the club option year,

meaning that the Indians would have been guaranteeing that 4th year to

a 36-year-old in 2011. To give that some proper perspective, consider

that everyone's favorite whipping boy, that "washed up, over-the-hill"

closer of ours, The Big Borowski, turned 36 this past May. Given the

volatility of relievers and the variables that seem to affect

relievers more than most, the 4th year is simply unnecessary.

But don't let that explanation of why including the 4th year in the

contract overwhelm the fact that the Indians re-signed (arguably) the

most effective reliever in the AL last year, locking in a set salary

for his two arbitration years and possibly buying out his first year

of Free Agency. The deal further solidifies the bullpen, as well as

the whole roster, for the short-term and the long-term as the Indians

lock in another piece to the puzzle for the foreseeable future...and