Willie Mo Avoids arbitration per Marc's Blog

[SanDiegoRed]

http://frontier.cincinnati.com/blogs/spring/

[Jpup]

The Reds' front office isn't taking today off watching football. On the heels of the Valentin signing this morning (see below), they have now inked Wily Mo Pena for one year at $1.25 million.

I'll have more a little later on.

Sounds great. I would like to see them take care of the others very soon. Hopefully that will come tonight.

[westofyou]

$1.25 million, for a man with massive power.

WMP, learn to take a walk and that's 4.25 million.

[Caveat Emperor]

$1.25 million, for a man with massive power.

WMP, learn to take a walk and that's 4.25 million.

...and, unless you're planning to get OnStar installed somewhere on your uniform, a few drills out in the outfield wouldn't hurt the salary either.

[Red Heeler]

...and, unless you're planning to get OnStar installed somewhere on your uniform, a few drills out in the outfield wouldn't hurt the salary either.

It couldn't hurt, but I doubt that Wily Mo will ever be more than a defensive liability. Whatever "it" is that good OF's have, Wily Mo does not have it. I don't buy the inexperience line, either. Most of the guys in my softball league take better routes to the ball.

That said, this is a good deal for the Reds. Pena has power matched by only a handful of ML players. With this deal, the Reds can afford to keep him or move him in a franchise altering deal. As I am of a mind to blow up darn near the whole Reds team and start over, I would be looking to raid Cleveland for him. They need somebody who can hit the ball over the fence with regularity and have good depth in their system. They don't have many high minors pitchers who are interesteing, but they do have positional talent which could free up others on the Reds to be traded for pitching.