A Few More Deals

1Bman Nick Johnson is reportedly close to a one-year deal with Yankees for around $5.5 million.  There’s something appropriate about Johnson returning to the Yanks, where he started his major league career, but it also means that the Giants won’t be signing him.

I’ve been waiting impatiently for the Giants to do something to improve their offense for 2010.  Re-signing Freddie Sanchez is only a drop in the bucket.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers seem intent on cornering the market on mediocre players.  In the last couple of days, they’ve signed Doug Mientkiewicz, Angel Berroa, Jamey Carroll, Luis Ayala, Josh Towers and Justin Miller and traded away Juan Pierre to the White Sox for two players to be named later, mainly to dump the better part of Pierre’s remaining contract commitments.

The difference between the Dodgers and the Giants, of course, is that the Dodgers already have a good hitting team.

The Mets signed Japanese reliever Ryota Igarashi to a two-year $3 million deal.  This is a deal I like a lot, because to a team with the Mets’ financial resources, $3 million is a drop in the bucket, and they might get lucky and have a really good major league reliever for two years.

Igarashi threw very hard and had a number of good seasons until he blew his arm out in 2006.  He missed the entire 2007 season, but he came back with a terrific year in 2008, posting a 2.47 ERA with 42 Ks and only 6 walks in 43.2 IP.

Igarashi wasn’t as good in 2009, posting a 3.19 ERA with 44 K’s and 20 walks in 53.2 IP.  He will be 31 in 2010.

It remains to be seen whether his control is MLB-worthy, but the thing about Japanese pitchers is that they tend to be very close to major league pitchers.  No one, or at least very few MLB hitters, have ever faced Igarashi, and that definitely favors him, at least in 2010.  Japanese pitchers with stuff can take MLB by storm their first season, since none of the players or the scouts know their weaknesses.

In short, it’s a deal I like because it’s low-risk with up-side.