The have’s and have not’s figure to only become more obvious this off season and the first sign may have already happened.
If the reports are correct the Chicago Cubs have resigned reliever John Grabow to a deal worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $6.5 to $7.5 million plus incentives for two seasons.
It’s not to say that Grabow is a bad pitcher but truth be told he’s always struggled with his control, and his track record hardly screams reason for large sums of money.
Grabow who turns 31 in a few days has found success in his last two seasons. Over that span he’s pitched 148.1 innings compiling a 3.09 ERA, 1.34 WHIP and for the most part has been a better then serviceable lefty reliever.
But for those types of stats it’s hard to reason that he command’s over $3 million and close to $4 million.
With that type of salary there figure to be more then a few guys batting in the middle of the lineup for the have nots that are making less then a seventh or eighth inning reliever for the Cubs.
While he hardly figures to be a huge factor in the success or lack of success in 2010 for the Cubs, signing Grabow to this type of deal only fuels the argument that teams like the Cubs overpay for even mediocre talent.
