Diamondbacks sign Garland to one year deal

According to Nick Piecoro, the Diamondbacks have come to terms with right hander Jon Garland on a one year deal worth between $6-8 million.  Garland becomes another player that rejected arbitration from his former team only to have it bite him in the butt.  Due a raise from his $12 million salary from 2008 in arbitration, Garland rejected the offer and chose to hit the open market in hopes of a multi-year deal worth big money.  He was not expecting the economy to hit him this hard. 

This is a great signing for the D-Backs.  After Brandon Webb and Dan Haren, Garland will be a great innings eater in the three slot and should definately improve upon his AL numbers (bye bye DH).  Arizona will most likely be able to keep the bullpen fresh with that trio at the top and as Piecoro points out, this will allow Arizona to move top prospect Max Scherzer along slower. 

In my opinion, the chips will begin to fall this week ahead as we start to see these other guys forced to accept similar deal (Wolf, Abreu, Dunn, Sheets).  Also, the Oliver Perez market seems nowhere to be found except at Citi Field.  A report surfaced the other day saying that the Rangers and Brewers were believed to be interested in Perez.  However, Brewers GM Bob Melvin quickly nipped that in the bud and the Rangers seem to have no major push to sign anyone, unless Ben Sheets can be had on their terms.  It smells like a Scott Boras move to drum up hype. 

This week, look for the Mets to lock up Perez for three years and an option.  I feel they will then take a look at Ben Sheets for a year maybe with an option.  They will then turn their attention to trying to snag one of the bats (Dunn, Abreu, Hudson, etc.) on the cheap side for a year until Fernando Martinez is ready.  Hudson is the least likely of that trio.  I am not a big Abreu fan at all, but a year of him for $6 million, I say do it.  It would be more productive than the Tatis/Murphy platoon.

Comments

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Garland is not the guy the Diamondbacks had hoped to sign but he is better than an untested rookie at this point. If Garland can manage to hold his walks down he might have a decent year.