I think this proves it wasn't a blunder to offer him arbitration, right? I think he is trade-able at this price if the Brewers want to.

Which proves that closers are right to fear a role change, it can cost them a lot of money fast.

Then again, Ryan Madson switched TO closer mid-season, and got this same contract, as an unrestricted free agent.

I had no idea K-Rod had pitched that well for the Brewers.

How often does a player accepting arbitration get less than what he earned the year before?

Walt

The results were there but by God it didn't FEEL that effective

That fella gave me about 8 heart attacks and four strokes

OMG! Harveys Wallbanger is Dick Cheney!!

[It's a heart attack joke, not a political joke -- don't take it personally]

That fella gave me about 8 heart attacks and four strokes

He'll do that, but at the end of the day, the results are pretty good. Angels fans never seemed to learn that. Much better to turn the ball over to guys who actually suck, instead of guys who just kind of look like they suck, but really don't. Live through a decade+ of really good closers and you forget what it was like to turn the ball over to Joe Grahe in the 9th.

The results were there but by God it didn't FEEL that effective

That fella gave me about 8 heart attacks and four strokes

Figured you'd be used to that type of relief appearance. You did live Coco Cordero, or was he not as nerve-racking in Milwaukee?

Interesting to me and I'm sure almost nobody else, from the game that K-Rod first pitched for the Brewers until the end of the season, the Brewers went 47 and 21. And that includes the 6 or so weeks that Weeks missed. I don't want to imply that K-Rod turned a team that was a few games over .500 into a team that won almost 70% of their games, but I do wonder how much shoring up a bullpen can have a cumulative effect that is felt in ways that we can't quite capture in WAR.

I'll be rooting for KRod. And whatever stats he puts up will be more than the already released Herrera and the 2 months from now released Rosario. Has to be one of the worst rip-offs ever.

And whatever stats he puts up will be more than the already released Herrera and the 2 months from now released Rosario. Has to be one of the worst rip-offs ever.

Can't agree. I would absolutely NOT have wanted the Mets to be on the hook for an $8M contract for K-Rod for 2012. Dealing him had nothing whatsoever to do with the warm bodies the Mets got in return; it had to do with making sure the Mets would not have to bear the risk of his unsupportable option vesting. As it turned out, the Brewers paid him some nominal money to alter the deal and get rid of the option, but there's no guarantee the Mets would have been able to make that same deal. And even if they had, they would either still have ended up with this contract because he accepted arbitration -- and I wouldn't want to be paying him this much -- or they'd have lost him for nothing anyway because he'd have walked when they didn't offer arb. Since I wouldn't have wanted him at this price, the deal remains OK by me.

I have no problem wishing him and the Brewers well, but I equally have no problem wishing him gone.

Which proves that closers are right to fear a role change, it can cost them a lot of money fast.

It does seem low, but I don't know how much to attribute to the role change, and how much to closers in general getting less this offseason.

@12: If he hadn't been K-Rod, I wouldn't have particularly minded the Mets getting his likely 2012 performance for 8m vs. Francisco's likely 2012 season for 6m--all other things being equal. But, it was K-Rod, and the Mets don't need the half a win he might provide over Francisco. For that fractional improvement, there's no reason for this current Mets team to keep a guy who's been a not insignificant part of the unhappy soap opera in Queens. It's like Zambrano in Chicago. The hypothetical--even likely--small improvement ain't worth it. Certainly not for teams that have no hope of contending.

He won't be missed.

But Sam, Collins let it slip that KRod wanted that option gone and told him the front office wouldn't even return his agent's calls. And even if he was insisting on it from the Mets, why did they deal him 19 days before the deadline? Either Jeff W is even more clueless than I thought or it was Bud's quid pro quo. To give the Brewers the one thing they needed for no price at all.

The one thing that really puzzles me about all this is how easily the Mets avoided the option vesting. I would have thought someone would have raised more of a stink. I'm the Players' Association, I wouldn't want teams thinking they can bail the way the Mets did. And if 14 is correct, it sounds like KRod had no leverage in this at all.