I say ‘probably’ because it’s from Jon Heyman, but whatever.
Affeldt and the Giants have agreement on terms of a new deal, sources say. It is expected to come in at about $18 million over the three years. The sides may just be awaiting the results of a physical.
And there it is. I posted earlier today about why the Giants might not need to lock up Affeldt for three years, but that theory assumes that Giants stop acting like the Giants, which isn’t going to happen. The $6M per year is pretty much in line with what I expected that Affeldt might get. The Brandon League and Affeldt deals have set the AAV for relievers in this year’s market at approximately $6-9M per year.
Affeldt’s pros are as follows:
- He’s durable. Since he became a Giant in 2009 he’s thrown 237.1 innings and appeared in 261 games.
- The ground balls. As we noted in today’s earlier post, Affeldt’s done a good job at keeping the ball on the ground.
- He seems like a really nice guy.
- He’s got experience working in the 8th and 9th innings, and if needed could be a fill-in closer.
- His curveball is pretty awesome and it makes Todd Helton look like a goofball.
The cons are as follows:
- He’s probably a little overvalued when you consider that from 2010-2011 he was essentially a replacement level reliever.
- I would have preferred two years with an option, but there’s reason to think that Affeldt was going to find a third year on the market.
- Money (hey, not my money!)
It’s a reasonable-ish deal, if a little high for my tastes, but I think we’re going to see that this is the going rate this year. Theoretically, with the coffers full from a World Series victory, the Giants can afford to overpay a little for relief help. And now we can try to guess Affeldt’s next freak injury.
