As the offseason winds down and we get closer and closer to pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training (February 13!), desperate teams and desperate players continue to lower their demands, and the final worthy free agents find homes.
Many of these signings are often ill-advised, as it’s easy to wonder if a token veteran will push a more deserving young player out of a job–this particularly applies to guaranteed deals like the one given to Mark Kotsay by the Brewers yesterday.
It’s particularly a risk when teams sign a player confined to one specific area; Freddy Garcia and Rodrigo Lopez are starting pitchers and Kotsay is a first baseman, for example. Relievers and utility players, however, can be slotted in less-defined roles where their addition isn’t necessarily going to push better players out of the way.
Clearly retooling after losing a ton of free agents, the Rays have no intention of backing down for the 2011 season, looking to acquire as many cheap options as possible and hoping one sticks. For the price of a maximum $1 million, Lopez comes as a bargain–even his awful 2010 was worth about that much.
While it seems like he’s been around forever, Lopez just turns 31 in June, and he’s just one year removed from hitting .310/.383/.427. Yes, he’s had two poor offensive years in the past four, and his defense is no longer a plus, but we’re talking about a player vying for a utility role. He’s a career .266/.336/.395 hitter with an average-across-the-board offensive package and defensive versatility. According to Fangraphs, he was worth $17.5 million in 2009. You don’t think there’s a chance he could be worth 5% of that a mere two years later? I sure do.
Of course, Lopez did hit just .233/.311/.345 with poor defense last season, but hey, if he shows up in that form again, he’s just on a minor league contract, so the Rays don’t have to put him on the 25-man roster. But that season certainly doesn’t necessarily spell the end for Lopez–he hit a similar .245/.308/.352 in 2007, then went on two have two very solid years at the plate.
With no risk and potentially high reward, it’s tough to not endorse this signing for Tampa Bay as they attempt to keep pace with the big-budget titans of the AL East.
In signing utility infielder Felipe Lopez, the Rays therefore add some depth and versatility, with no downside whatsoever.
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