Ryan Madson Joining Cincinnati Reds

Something that’s interesting about Madson is that he’s right-handed. Wait, no, that isn’t interesting at all. What’s interesting is that Madson is right-handed and yet highly successful against left-handed hitters. Over the past three years, Madson’s allowed a .622 OPS to righties, and a .624 OPS to lefties. What’s been the key to Madson’s platoon split avoidance?

Mark Simon has a theory:

Over at Baseball Prospectus, Ben Lindbergh weighs in on Ryan Madson’s new one-year, $8.5 million deal with the Cincinnati Reds. You should read the whole thing, but here’s Lindbergh’s big finish:

Heh. “Pillow contract”. I’m going to try to remember that one.

Two days later, Boras procured a three year, $35 million contract for Rafael Soriano. He most certainly did pull it out of his back pocket. Or, at least, there was a hole in his back pocket that allowed easy access to the area from which he did pull it out.

That’s the magic of Scott Boras. There have been “Did Boras overplay his hand?” articles before. There will be “Did Boras overplay his hand?” articles in the future. And right now you’re reading a “Did Boras overplay his hand?” article in the present. Which leads us to the question of the day:

The Reds have been busy this offseason, as they’ve been paying attention to the big stars leaving the division, the Cubs’ commitment to rebuilding, and the Pirates and Astros running in place. Earlier in the offseason, they traded for left-handed reliever Sean Marshall, who was supposed to shore up the late innings with Nick Masset, Bill Bray, and Jose Arredondo.

Then the Reds got busier, signing the best reliever left on the market (and by some measures, the best reliever who was on the market in the first place.) The good folks at Red Reporter are thrilled:

Ryan Madson deal is for $8.5M for one year, source saysOnce you get past the stigma that every post-arbitration closer is overpaid, this is a pretty low-risk, high-reward deal for the Reds, who are building a team with a Pujols- and Prince-free NL Central in mind.

The most surprising part isn’t the one-year deal if this nugget from John Fay is true:

Did the Reds get their money’s worth from Cordero? He was healthy for all four seasons, posted a 2.98 ERA, and averaged 38 saves per season. I suspect the Reds think they got their money’s worth, though according to FanGraphs he’s been worth (gulp) roughly $13 million. Not per season. All four seasons.

The way these things are figured, the best relief pitchers are generally overpaid.

John Fay, later Tuesday:

And finally, Jon Heyman, late Tuesday:

Of course, here’s another Dipoto quote from November:

Dipoto said it is “always my preference” to make “impact moves” via trades rather than free-agent signingsThat whole article is worth reading once a week, really.

Hearing Phils closing in on 4 year deal with closer Ryan Madson. If so, nice job getting this done on both sides !And this was followed by Tim Brown …

Confirming Madson with Phils, 4 for 44 mil. Fifth-year option worth 13 mil.Then Twitter exploded. Four years? Eleven million dollars per? For a reliever? Were the Phillies mad?

I have no idea how to see a rebuilding process through. But I am from the Internet, so by law I have to pretend that I do. The goons at MLB took away my first guess, which was to spend, spend, spend on international free agents and the draft. But my second guess would be to turn overvalued commodities into prospects. The difference between a great closer and a poor closer is usually just a handful of games, and rebuilding teams shouldn’t worry too much about the difference between 70 and 73 wins.

Both are locked up -- Bailey is entering arbitration for the first time, and Soria has a couple of team options at legit-closer rates. Both are effective-to-outstanding. Both aren’t helping their current team do more than languish at the bottoms of their respective divisions. It seems simple, right? Remember, I am from the Internet. I know about these things.

Every team in baseball at least pays lip service to on-base percentage now. You might hear some mainstream writers or managers make a big deal about pitcher wins, but you rarely hear GMs mention them. The revolution is over. Condolences. The bums won.

But if there’s one area in which the blognoscenti and front offices vary wildly, it’s with the value of closers. Teams love to pay them a lot of money. Analysts think that money would be better used at almost any other position. Old Hoss Radbourn cuts to the core of the argument in fewer than 140 characters:

* it’s Ramos

In case you’re unaware, rumor had it that Madson and the Phillies had agreed to a four-year contract worth $44 million, with a fifth-year option. Some went so far as to say that the deal was done, and was simply awaiting approval from general partner David Montgomery. It looked like Madson returning to Philadelphia - at a hefty cost - was all but a given.

Ruben Amaro, Jr. couldn’t comment on the deal, and we figured his silence wasn’t because the contract wasn’t finalized, but because he physically couldn’t comment. Figured there was probably a cigar in his mouth, lit with a $1,000,000 bill that he paid the Federal Reserve to print just for him for situations just like this. Hard to talk with that thing in your mouth. But it turns out, the deal wasn’t done. From Ken Rosenthal:

While SI.com reported that Phillies general partner David Montgomery has yet to approve the supposed agreement, multiple sources said Wednesday that the two sides never reached a deal.

Various sources, including Yahoo!‘s Tim Brown, say that Madson’s going to get $44 million over four years, with a fifth-year option. Nothing is set in stone yet and things could fall apart in an instant because who knows, but something tells me Madson and Scott Boras aren’t going to let this contract get away.

But what needs to be taken into account is that Ruben Amaro mints his own money, of which he has an unlimited supply. Slight overpayments can be a big deal, but they’re less of a big deal for teams like the Phillies, who spend money like they’re allergic to it. Here’s what the Phillies wanted to do: