On Friday the New York Yankees made their first bold move of the off-season, signing right-handed relief pitcher Rafael Soriano away from the Tampa Bay Rays for a reported 3-year deal for $35 million dollars. Also, it has been reported that Soriano can opt out of the contract after both year one and year two. Soriano was a Type A Free Agent, meaning the Yankees will send their 2011 1st round draft pick to Tampa as compensation.
Soriano is one of the best right-handed relief pitchers in all of baseball, though his past injury history tends to keep him underrated with the baseball public. But make no mistake, when he is healthy, he is easily a top 10 reliever in all of baseball. His numbers bear this out:
Career: 342 Appearances, 395 IP, 88 Saves, 2.73 ERA, 1.000 WHIP, 422 Ks
2010: 64 Appearances, 62.1 IP, 45 Saves, 1.73 ERA, 0.802 WHIP, 57 Ks
2009: 77 Appearances, 75.2 IP, 27 Saves, 2.97 ERA, 1.057 WHIP, 102 Ks
2008:(Injured) 14 Appearances, 14 IP, 3 Saves, 2.57 ERA, 1.143 WHIP, 16 Ks
Soriano will slide into the 8th inning, stopper role and act as the closer when Mariano Rivera needs a day off. These two should provide the best 1-2 bullpen tandem in baseball and one of the better combinations in recent memory. This signing reminds me of the mid-90s Yankees when their bullpen had a young Mariano Rivera setting up for John Wetteland. Those two were so dominant that if the Yankees were leading after 7 innings, the opposition doubted their ability to come back. I think these two could potentially be that dominant at the back end of the bullpen. This signing allows Pedro Feliciano to slide into his more comfortable role of middle relief who is extremely difficult on lefties and allows the combination of Joba Chamberlain and David Robertson to focus on the 6th and 7th innings and getting the ball to Soriano and Rivera with the lead.
Though signing Soriano improves the bullpen immensely and should provide a solid boost to the team overall, the contract seems excessive. As has been proven out time and again in free agency, signing relief pitchers to 3-year contracts rarely works out for the ball club. And to give a non-closer almost $12 million per season is borderline crazy, even for the Yankees. Plus to allow him the opportunity to opt out after each season, while unlikely at these dollars, gives the player a tremendous amount of unnecessary leverage. I figured he would receive a closing job from some team this off-season, and a contract of 3 years and $25 million dollars, so this contract is a healthy raise from that guesstimate. Also, I don’t think it should be overlooked that the Yankees will lose their first round draft choice as part of this transaction as well: this draft is incredibly stacked and the opportunity to secure one of the best 30 players will hurt the farm system and potentially hinder a trade in 2012 or 2013.
Overall, I think this signing makes the Yankees 2-3 games better in 2011 and probably half a game to three-quarters of a game better in the postseason. The bottom line is Soriano greatly improves the Yankees and the team has the financial resources to spend excessively compared to other teams. If a mid to small market team had made this signing, I would be slamming this deal for the length and dollars involved, but the Yankees had a need in the bullpen and signed the best reliever available this winter. The loss of the draft pick also hurts the team long term, but Soriano makes them a better team and the contract will not affect the Yankees from making additional moves down the line. Therefore, I would sign off on this deal as a good but not great move.
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Overall Grade: B to B-