And the Hot Stove Begins

The World Series isn’t even over yet and the Hot Stove action has begun in Major League Baseball. Seems a little early to have the announcements of free agent signings but hey the San Francisco Giants got a lot of work to do. The Giants announced today that they resigned infielder Freddy Sanchez to a two-year deal worth $12 million.

The Giants held a club option for Sanchez. It was either pick him back up at $8.1 million for the 2010 season or buy him out for $600,000. For a player who missed considerable amount of time due to injury the $8 million figure was pretty steep so it was no surprise the team bought him out to renegotiate.

His new deal works out pretty well for both the player and team. The San Francisco Gate reports that Sanchez took a paycut for 2010 to guarantee himself a contract in 2011.

In 2010, he’ll be making $6 million, a pay cut just north of $2 million. In return he gets a salary of $6 million in 2011. Not bad for a guy who is 32 and plays second base on a team that doesn’t have a shortage of options there.

If Sanchez can stay healthy in 2010 he’ll be a huge addition to the Giants lineup. I say addition cause he only played in 25 games for the team after being traded from the Pittsburgh Pirates. During that time he batted .284 with a double, homer and 7 rbis in 100 at-bats. Nothing big but it was while fighting injuries.

In 2009 as a whole, he batted .293 with 55 runs, 7 homers, 41 rbis and 29 doubles in 111 games. The bulk of it all coming before the All-Star break and the injuries to his shoulder and knee.

Like I said if he can stay healthy he’ll be a huge addition to that lineup batting before Pablo Sandoval. Can’t wait to see what Kung-Fu Panda’s numbers will look like when he actually has someone on base in front of him.