Is Ben Sheets Worth $10 Million?: A's Risking That He Is Worth the Money

Ben Sheets holding his Oakland Athletics jersey after signing with them for the 2010 season.

I can’t understand the logic of the Oakland Athletics signing Ben Sheets for the $10 million he wanted when they probably could have signed him for less.

Now the question is if he will be with the Athletics for the entire season and if he can remain healthy enough to really help the Athletics.

Another Matt Holliday Situation?

This seems to be another Matt Holliday situation where Sheets could be traded in the middle of the season before the trading deadline. If he is traded it might cut the financial loss for the Athletics if he pitches as badly as Holliday played badly for the Athletics in 2009.

If Sheets has a typical season of winning thirteen or less games he may have six or seven wins by the middle of July which is not much of a financial return on the $5 million they would pay for a half season rental of Sheets. I will be very surprised if Sheets is even healthy enough to be traded which would mean the Athletics would be liable for the entire $10 million if they can’t unload him in July.

Hot Stove News

With January drawing to a close soon there was a lot of activity yesterday as players and particularly pitchers try to sign deals for the 2010 season with pitchers having only 22 days till pitchers and catchers report for spring training on Feb. 18.

The Minnesota Twins have agreed to terms with Jim Thome who apparently will never have another 500 at bat season regardless of who he signs with. One thing for certain is that Thome will not be taking the field during 2010 except in an extreme emergency. Thome who needs 36 home runs to reach the 600 home run mark will be fortunate if he bats enough to hit 20 homers in 2010.

Thome will be taking a huge cut in pay dropping from being paid $13 million in 2009 by the White Sox to being signed by the Twins for $1.5 million.

The Dodgers have showed they have no interest in bringing back Orlando Hudson after signing Ronnie Belliard to a $825,000 contract for the 2010 season….Orlando Hudson may have to reduce his asking price of $9 million after over two months of being a free agent and no deal yet….The Padres have signed Jon Garland who is not the pitcher that Jake Peavy was but still will bolster the Padres starting pitching rotation. Garland will be earning about $2.5 million less than he earned last season with the Diamondbacks and Dodgers in 2010.

The Cubs have signed Chad Tracy to a minor league contract. He has never played second base in the majors so it is questionable if he would get much playing time as an infielder. He hasn’t played outfield since 2005 but that is his best option to get playing time but if Xavier Nady is signed by the Cubs he won’t see much playing time there either with Alfonso Soriano, Marlon Byrd and Xavier Nady to get most of the playing time with Kosuke Fukudome the fourth outfielder.

The Dodgers have signed Brad Ausmus for the 2010 season with Ausmus being 41 in April.

Yesterday was an extremely active day for offseason moves and we should see some more of the same in the remaining days of January as players try to sign before teams complete their 2010 spring training rosters.

We could see some well known players unvoluntarily retired because of  lack of offers. Some of the well known names who haven’t been mentioned much this offseason are:

Garret Anderson (38)

Gary Sheffield (41)

Marcus Thames (33)

Darin Erstad (36)

Hank Blalock, Ryan Garko, Mike Jacobs all only 29

Joe Crede (32)

Brian Giles (39)

Mike Hampton (37)

Braden Looper (35)

Pedro Martinez (38)

Kevin Gregg (32)

Eric Gagne (34)

Russ Springer (41)