Dave Perkins notes that one of the big beneficiaries of this off-season will be Vernon Wells.

A year ago, Wells' value seemed constrained by the seven-year, $119 million deal given Carlos Beltran by the Mets two years ago at age 26.

Now along comes Soriano, who is good but not in Wells' class and will be 31 on opening day. He gets an eight-year deal and who would you rather have, Soriano or Wells, who will be 28 next opening day and is a Gold Glove outfielder? It's not really close.

Matthews, who is 32, took a career average of .249 into this past season and parlayed that into five years and $50 million. Pierre, 29, is one of those waterbug-type outfielders, useful but nowhere near the five-tool man Wells is.

Every baseball contract reflects on every other contract and they all add up to one thing: Wells' price, already well beyond the stated means of the Blue Jays, keeps going out of sight. His time in Toronto is extremely limited and don't blame him. How could anyone not wish to take a kick at the financial can that's available?

I'm not sure I agree with this. Wells, for his career, owns a .336 OBA and a .492 slugging percentage. That's not exactly the best in the business. Considering he's played in a good hitter's park for his career, those number might even be worse than they look. Soriano has a lower OBA, but a higher slugging percentage. Wells' edge is in defense. That doesn't make closer to Beltran than Soriano. He should expect a payday in line with Alfonso's, but if there are a number of outfielders available next year, I suspect his salary will be at the lower end of the scale. After all, if you get to choose between Andruw Jones and Vernon Wells, I suspect Andruw will get the megabucks first.