Well, that was unexpected. The Nationals made some more news at Major League Baseball’s Winter Meetings in Indianapolis late Monday night, siging catcher Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez to a reported two-year, $6 million contract. Rodriguez will fill the team’s gaping hole at backup catcher. But the 38-year-old — a future Hall-of-Famer — could find himself playing a lot early on next season.
That’s because the team is still uncertain about the status of starter Jesus Flores. The 25-year-old missed most of 2009 with a torn labrum and had surgery to repair his right shoulder in September. That type of injury often takes six months to heal, which would put his return sometime in March. A month sooner and Flores will be ready for spring training and maybe to start the season. A month later? Well, the Nats want to be ready if that happens.
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Rodriguez enters his 19th season. He was a legendary defensive catcher in his prime with the Texas Rangers and won the 1999 American League MVP award. But he is also a shadow of his former self. Rodriguez has played for four teams in the last two seasons alone. He began 2008 with the Tigers and was traded to the Yankees. He started 2009 with the Astros and — in a return to his original club last summer — was traded back to the Rangers.
Rodriguez has won 13 Gold Glove awards at catcher and appeared in 14 All-Star games. But he is no longer a productive player at the plate with an OPS of .663 last year. Of course, that’s still better than either Josh Bard (.655 OPS) or Wil Nieves (.612 OPs) managed last year while Flores was on the disabled list. Nieves is the logical non-tender candidate to create an open spot on the organization’s 40-man roster. Rodriguez still needs to pass a physical to cement the new contract with the Nats.
Both the amount of money and the length of the contract are a surprise. Rodriguez earned an average salary of $10 million through 2008, but was paid just $1.5 million last year when he signed with Houston. He eventually earned about $1 million more in performance-bonus dollars. But that was only a one-year deal. This is a two-year contract for $6 million. It’s possible general manager Mike Rizzo and the Nats felt they had to overpay. And it’s true that Rodriguez can serve as a mentor to Flores when the younger player does return. But it’s hard to quantify the value of that and the raw numbers suggest Washington overpaid in both money and term.
Of course, with about $20 million in salary coming off the books from last season, the Nats may have just decided they could afford to do so. As of Dec. 8, including Rodriguez, the team’s payroll was still down to about $47 million — depending on arbitration raises for eligible players. Last year’s Opening Day payroll was $60.328 million. That leaves plenty of money to acquire a veteran middle infielder and starting pitcher — both key offseason goals.
