| Christopher Reina. 3rd March, 2009 - 10:42 am
 The Oakland A's continued their aggressive offseason with an in-Spring Training move by signing shortstop Orlando Cabrera to a one-year, $4 million deal.
Cabrera had one excellent offensive season back in 2003 and has ben a fairly average player in most other seasons and is coming off arguably the least productive offensive year of his career. After going to the White Sox in exchange for Jon Garland, Cabrera hit .281/.334/.371 and was 14th amongst shortstops in OPS.
Not lost on people in Oakland is that Cabrera's .705 OPS easily beats Bobby Crosby's .645 and Edgar Renteria's .699. The former is the shortstop Cabrera will replace and the latter is who the Giants signed for $18.5 million over two years back in early December when the free agent market looked more slow than absolutely on life support.
Cabrera is 34 and gives the A's a band-aid upgrade at shortstop over Crosby, though I'm not sure if he is exactly worth the pick it will cost them, plus the $4 million. For a team under more normal budget constraints, Cabrera is an absolute bargain but Billy Beane always has to come to the table with fewer chips.
The 40 to even possibly 80 point difference in OPS between Cabrera and Crosby, however, will give the offense another .15 runs per game over the season. He will provide many more run producing opportunities for Matt Holliday than the alternatives and so this $4 million is also an investment in his $13.5 million.
Crosby is of course the player most affected by this signing, but given Eric Chavez's injury proclivity, he would be wise to join Michael Young on that third baseman crash course of 2009.
Additionally, Cabrera is still one of the better defensive shortstops, even though his range has declined.
Grade for Oakland: B+ |
