Free Agent Frenzy!

Man, this offseason is really picking up.  Prince Fielder has signed with Mystery Team The Detroit Tigers for 9 years, and $214MM, which is pretty much Albert Pujols money.  Jesus Christ.  Is anybody still upset that the Jays didn't pony up the cash to sign this guy now?  Because if that's what it cost to sign him without a market, anybody who was suggesting a 1-year deal, much less a 5-year deal, can quietly put their head down and slump their way to the fuck-off department.

I'll probably have a look-see at just what this means for the Tigers going forward tomorrow, and it will more than likely be on Nowhere Plans, but here's a hint: defense apparently doesn't matter in Detroit.  Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder, and Victor Martinez are all virtually DH's at this stage of their careers, and while Martinez is injured and probably out for 2012, and only under contract until 2013, Cabrera and Fielder aren't exactly built for the longterm.

Elsewhere, the Jays have signed Francisco Cordero to a 1 year contract worth $4.5MM.  I, for one, am not thrilled about this one, especially at the price and lack of option.  Cordero put up 37 saves last year, and had an ERA in the mid-2's, but only had a 2:1ish K:BB ratio, and a 4.02 FIP/4.14 xFIP/3.93 SIERA/0.1 WAR.  A .212 babip and 82% LOB rate are both unsustainably amazing.  Hopefully he has a good first half and gets traded for absolutely anything, but yeesh, this could get ugly folks, especially in this division.

The signing clogs up an already pretty busy bullpen.  Beyond Cordero, Sergio Santos, Darren Oliver, Jason Frasor and Casey Janssen are all essentially guaranteed spots, and Carlos Villanueva seems pretty likely to have one as well.  This should leave the final spot as a race between Jesse Litsch and Luis Perez, and since Perez is a lefty, Jesse Litsch is probably going to be the odd-man out.  Of course, there are guys like Joel Carreno, Chad Beck, Danny Farhquar, and Trystan Magnusson kind of hanging around in the minors, though they're all quite young, still have options left on their contracts, and have yet to really prove themselves in the majors.

The Jays will need to find a spot on the 40-man roster for when the Cordero deal becomes official.  Barring some secret surgery that sends someone to the 60-day DL, someone is going to have to be DFA'ed or traded to make room.  The aforementioned Beck, Magnusson, or Farquhar could all be candidates.  I suppose that Mike Mccoy or Luis Valbuena are candidates as well.

Yoenis Cespedes has apparently secured residency in the Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico or something like that, which will allow him to become a free agent fairly soon.  He's expected to be signed to a deal that rivals Aroldis Chapman's 6 year, $30.25MM deal.

Apparently Alex Anthopoulos is on the FAN 590 right now.