Reds sign Orlando Cabrera to one-year, $3M deal; option for second year

[Degenerate39]

Will they still go after Gomes now?

[OnBaseMachine]

Will they still go after Gomes now?

Gomes is close to signing a minor league contract with the Reds according to ESPN.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2010/0...ston-ruiz.html

[OnBaseMachine]

Mark Sheldon confirms the deal via twitter:

Confirmed: #reds agree with Orlando Cabrera...one yr/$3 M w/ $3 M option for 2011 w/$1 M buyout (not sure if it's club or player option)

http://twitter.com/m_sheldon

[Caveat Emperor]

Gomes is close to signing a minor league contract with the Reds according to ESPN.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2010/0...ston-ruiz.html

Doubt they have the money to do anything beyond minor league deals from this point forward.

[JaxRed]

I would think with a 1 million buyout, it's a club option.

[OnBaseMachine]

Orlando Cabrera will become the second Colombian-born player to play for the Reds. The first? His brother Jolbert Cabrera, who played for the Reds in 2008.

[SirFelixCat]

Provided it's a team option (and you would think it was w/ the $1M buyout), I'm a big fan of this signing.

I said this earlier and I still stand by it:

I think signing Cabrera to a 1 year deal w/ Janish as a platoon/late inning replacement would be alright in my book. Heck, if the money is reasonable and Janish ends up out playing Cabrera, then it's a backup plan. As it sits right now, there IS NO BACKUP plan, so I'm all for this. I also think his defense won't be as bad as 2009, but not as good as 2008. I like it as long as it's a 1 yr deal. That's the main thing, imo.

Letting Janish either platoon vs lefties or as a late inning replacement helps this team. Sign me up!

[OnBaseMachine]

I'm hoping they DFA Willy Taveras to make room for Cabrera on the 40-man roster but that's probably unlikely. It will probably be Drew Sutton unfortunately. Sutton's not a great player obviously but I'd like to keep him around. He's a switch-hitter who can play four or five different positions and he's a career .280/.378/.442 - .820 OPS hitter in the minor leagues. I think he's got a future as a solid utility player in the big leagues.

[savafan]

Now I can sleep.

[corkedbat]

A large buyout for just a $3m contract (I'd have expected a half-million or less), but I still like the signing. All-in-all, I'd rather have picked up a youngster in a deal, but since this didn't happen, I think OC was the best veteran option on the market (and he cost zero in talent to acquire).

I wasn't comfortable going to war with Janish as our only real option at SS. Hopefuly OC can give us some offensive punch and decent D. If Janish shows he's really improved offensively, then OC can serve as a verteran presence on the bench, but let Janish earn it instead of being handed the job by default.

At the very least, I'm hoping the two of them can give us a passable bridge to 2011, when I think we start a run of several years of Cozart, Rojas, Gregorious, Rodriguez, Hamilton, Valor, etc. stepping up to take their turns at following in Davey & Barry's tradition.

I still wanna sign Damon though. C'mon Bob! Just ante-up another $4 or 5M!

LF Damon
SS Cabrera
1B Votto
2B Phillips
RF Bruce
3B Rolen
CF Stubbs/Dickerson
CA Hernandez

[Will M]

me likey.

his last five years OPS+ are 81 91 95 84 86. for his career his ops+ is 86.

defensively his last 5 years UZR/150 are +23 -2 +9 +13 -14.
what has been repeatedly stated is that we should average out the last 3 years when looking at UZR.

so lets say he puts up a UZR/150 of +3 & an OPS+ of 86. he would be worth ~2.3 WAR. this is a great deal for $3M.

SS goes from being a potential black hole to being solid.

[Kc61]

I like the signing since it improves the offense, improves the bench with Janish, and along with Gomes gives minor leaguers another year to get ready at AAA.

I am a little concerned defensively, late last year with Janish the infield defense was outstanding, but I don't think we'll know until the season gets going. Last year could have been an outlier, some times guys have fielding slumps or just bad years.

Since this seemed very likely, the most interesting part for me is how they make room on the forty man roster. A big move like DFA'ing Taveras? Or slipping a minor leaguer through waivers and taking him off the roster. It's not obvious to me what they will do.

[TheNext44]

I really could care less about the money. Cabrera is definitely the last addition to the major league roster, so whatever money got will not prevent the Reds from adding more talent.

The only issue is if he was the best player to spend the last remaining payflex on. Assuming Damon wanted more then the Reds could afford, Cabrera is probably one of the best available, if not the best, especially considering the Reds needs for a SS.

As OBM stated, the big question is his defense. I normally would assume that he'll probably be about as good as the average of his last three years. But as we have seen with AGon and Castro, aging SS have a tendency to fall off a cliff defensively at some point, and last year could have been that year for Cabrera. I do think that if that is the case, and he continues to provide below average defense, he'll be backing up Janish or maybe even Cozart. So at worst, he becomes somewhat overpriced back up SS.

That said, I still really wanted to see Janish play SS for a whole year, but that's more because I love great defense, and loved what I saw when Janish became a starter last year.

[RED VAN HOT]

I'm hoping they DFA Willy Taveras to make room for Cabrera on the 40-man roster but that's probably unlikely. It will probably be Drew Sutton unfortunately. Sutton's not a great player obviously but I'd like to keep him around. He's a switch-hitter who can play four or five different positions and he's a career .280/.378/.442 - .820 OPS hitter in the minor leagues. I think he's got a future as a solid utility player in the big leagues.

Your logic sounds good to me. I think it needs to be a middle infielder. I suspect it will be Rosales rather than Sutton.

[Ron Madden]

I hope the cut from the 40 man roster is Taveras but that's a pipe dream.

It will most likely be Rosales or Sutton, if that's the case it should be Rosales but I bet it will be Sutton.