Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Free agents and draft picks, Part II

A few hours after my previous post went up, word came that Adam LaRoche -- one of the nine free agents tied to compensation draft picks -- had agreed to a two-year deal with the Washington Nationals.

This hardly contradicts the post's point, that some of the players who got qualifying offers perhaps should have accepted them. LaRoche wound up remaining with his original team, but if the reports Tuesday are accurate, his new deal guarantees $24 million over the next two years, or $12 million a year. That's less on a per-year basis than he turned down when he rejected the qualifying offer. We can't be sure that he'd have done better over the long run had he taken the offer, but it's certainly plausible.

LaRoche certainly got less than he was anticipating; he was seeking a three-year deal, and that didn't come to fruition. But at least his original team was willing to re-sign him. That isn't the case for Rafael Soriano and, it appears, for Kyle Lohse or Michael Bourn either.

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