Jason Schmidt Done for the Year

Ken Gurnick of mlb.com reports that the Dodgers have placed Jason Schmidt on the 60-Day Disabled List to make room on the Bums’ 40-man roster for Vicente Padilla.  This effectively ends Schmidt’s tenure as a Dodger, and most likely, his professional career.

Schmidt was a great pitcher for the Giants from 2002 through 2006, the best trade of the Brian Sabean Era, except (maybe) the trade that netted Jeff Kent (the Kent deal would clearly be better, except that the Giants had to give up Matt Williams to get him).

However, in its own way, Schmidt’s decision to sign a three-year $47 million deal with the Dodgers before the 2007 season did almost as much for the Giants as Schmidt gave them during his five seasons with the team.  The Dodgers have far larger revenue streams playing in L.A. than the Giants have playing in San Francisco.  San Francisco is a good market, but greater L.A. is second only to greater New York.

The Giants simply wouldn’t be able to compete with the Dodgers if the Dodgers didn’t with some regularity way overpay for free agent flops.  Schmidt was exceptionally bad, giving the Bums 3 wins and 7 losses for the $47 million the Dodgers paid him.  Even the Zito contract looks good by comparison, if only because Zito is still pitching.

The Schmidt contract meant that the Dodgers could not afford at least one more mega-star, or several lesser stars, for the last three years.

The Giants were too awful the last three years for the Schmidt contract to do them any good, but as a Giants’ fan, watching the Dodgers shoot themselves in the foot always gives me schadenfreude.