Baseball Musings: Finley to Anaheim

December 10, 2004

Finley to Anaheim

Reports are that Steve Finley has signed a deal with the Anaheim Angels. I'm not sure what this means. ~~Are the Angels going to play Finley in right and go after Beltran, or do they see Finley as the everyday CF?~~

According to the LA Times, it takes them out of the Beltran race. If that's true, this is a bad signing and my admiration for the Angels front office and ownership just went down.

The deal, believed to guarantee the 39-year-old Finley between $15 million and $20 million over two years, will go a long way toward filling the power void left by the departures of left fielder Jose Guillen and third baseman Troy Glaus and should give the Angels one of baseball's most formidable outfields, with Vladimir Guerrero, the American League most valuable player, in right and Garret Anderson in left.
"I think it's a better outfield than we had last year," said Tim Salmon, the Angel veteran who will sit out most of 2005 while recovering from knee and shoulder surgery. "Garret did an admirable job in center, but I think his natural position is left. And offensively, [Finley] gives us one more good solid bat. He still has some sock."

The deal also leaves the Angels in good financial position to pursue such top-notch free-agent pitchers as Carl Pavano, Matt Clement, Russ Ortiz and possibly Pedro Martinez, and to possibly make another run at Arizona ace Randy Johnson, whom the Angels tried to acquire in July.

That's a lot of money for a 2005 forty year old. And the idea that Finley is a power threat doesn't really jibe with his career. His career high in home runs is 36, and he hit that last year. (In light of the recent steroid scandal, it makes you wonder.) His career slugging percentage is .450 and his career OBA is .337; those number just don't impress me.

On the other hand, I thought he was done after his 1998 season with the Padres (.301 OBA, .401 Slugging). But here he is being a very well paid aging player. Still, I bet $15 million a year for three years for Beltran would be a much better investment. This could really go down as one of the memorably bad free agent signings.

Correction: My brain wasn't working when I wrote the first paragraph. Somehow I have Guillen in right field in my mind. The Angels just needed a new CF so they could move Anderson back to left.

Posted by David Pinto at 12:34 PM | Free Agents | TrackBack (0)

Comments

Yeesh. Fiscal sanity is officially gone. 10 mil a year for Steve Finley?! Boras is probably salivating over what Beltran can get now.

Posted by: Daniel at December 10, 2004 12:59 PM

Don't the Angels already have an overpaid, underperforming CF? Oh, yeah. He's playing 1B.

Posted by: Jurgen at December 10, 2004 01:18 PM

"Are the Angels going to play Finley in right and go after Beltran"

Um... they already have a right fielder... he won some kind of award this year, I think.

Posted by: Larry Mahnken at December 10, 2004 01:24 PM

No way this is a memorably bad contract...it is only for two years, and even if he underperforms, it is $5 million per year more than he is worth. Owners have returned to free spending (giving more credence to the Unions suspicions of collusion last year), but they do seem to have avoided long-term contracts. Nothing over 4 years to date.

Posted by: Man of Leisure at December 10, 2004 01:24 PM

$15M for 3 years for Beltran??? Are you crazy?!?! Beltran is going to get at LEAST a 6 year contract, and it's probably going to be longet than that. It'll probably end up topping $100M. I'm guessing 7 years, $100M will do it for Beltran.

Posted by: sabernar at December 10, 2004 02:20 PM

The contract for Finley may be just Moreno firing a big FU to the Yankees by setting the market for free agent CFs ludicrously high. If Finley's worth $10mm per year, Beltran at minimum will command anywhere from $15-$20mm from the Yankees. I'm sure Scott Boras is readjusting his contract demands as we speak.

Perhaps the Angels figure that if they're not going to get Beltran anyway, might as well make it hurt the Yankees a little bit. And if the Orioles or Astros or Cubs swoop in with a similar large contract, even better, less competition for marquee free agents in two years.

Posted by: Albert Jones at December 10, 2004 02:53 PM

This is an absolutely stupid signing. Finley may outperform DaVanon/Rivera/Figgins/Morales, but won't do it by nearly enough to warrant that contract.

Posted by: Jeff at December 10, 2004 03:06 PM

I don't think its a mistake to pass on Beltran. The guy is the most overrated player since Jeter, and will ultimately get a similar contract (huge money for a good-very good, but not great). The Angels made a great move getting Vlad (who is _clearly_ superior to Beltran) for a relative bargain last year. Too bad they threw away that advantage with this signing.

Posted by: Ron at December 10, 2004 03:39 PM

Overrated? Perhaps a bit, he's a damn good ballplayer AND he's still in his prime. His OPS has been over .900 the past couple seasons, and he's an above average CF. And he's fast and a great base stealer (42 out of 45 in 2004). And he's been pretty healthy recently. The reason that Vlad was such a bargain is that everyone was worried about his back (which, at the time, I thought was stupid). Is he the BEST at anything he does? Probably not, but he's darn good at pretty much EVERYTHING he does.

Posted by: sabernar at December 10, 2004 04:01 PM

You're right, Beltran is a damn good ballplayer. However, I have trouble reconciling the hyperbole I read (possible MVP, best player in the game, $200 million/10 year contract, best FA since A-Rod) with the numbers he's actually posted (2 .900+ OPS by his peak age). There's likely going to be some owner who believes and pays for the hyperbole, which I think means that Beltran is going to be "overpriced". It remains to be seen, but I think guys like Ordonez and Delgado will prove to be better deals.

Posted by: ron at December 10, 2004 10:10 PM