Brewers Sign Vargas (1 yr/3.6 Mil)

[MillerParkSouth]

http://blogs.jsonline.com/brewers/archive/2008/01/16/vargas-signs-one-year-deal.aspx

 

One year deal, leaving Bush, JJ and Cappy as the only arby eligible players left unsigned. They have until Friday to reach an agreement.

[berniebrewer4life]

They are assuming over 3 million since he got 2.5 last year. Not a bad deal, and might make him easier to trade now.

[TerraceReserved]

Well that's that. Hopefully Vargas will be the one who gets traded out of our surplus 3 SP.

[southpaw121505]

Don't we have to trade him? We have 8 starters, and really only room for one of them in the pen. Parra is the only logical one to start the year in AAA so that means one of the remaining starters almost have to be traded. Unless we get an offer we really like for Cappy or Bush I'd prefer to trade Vargas for the best low level prospect we can get.

[logan82]

MillerParkSouth wrote:

One year deal, leaving Bush, JJ and Cappy as the only arby eligible players left unsigned. They have until Friday to reach an agreement.

They have until Friday before they have to submit arbitration figures. They can still keep talking until the arbitration hearing. Now teams know what they will have to pay Vargas if they trade for him.

[crewcrazy]

I think Vargas could be decent out of the bullpen, but I don't think there's any room for him there, and the guys already penciled in are probably better than him. I remember him upping his velocity a bit when he came out of the pen last year, but his habit of putting guys on base was still there. Hopefully Doug can find a nice nugget for him sometime before Opening Day.

[paul253]

$3.6 million....seems like a lot to pay for someone who shouldn't be on the team. If he isn't traded I'm going to be very mad. I'd rather let him walk than pay that much for basically a #8 starter.

[Ennder]

So he makes slightly more than Lieber.

[crewcrazy]

It's basically the same deal that Jon Lieber just got from the Cubs, so $3.6M is fine by me. I'm sure Vargas for 1 year, $3.6 million is a lot more attractive for teams looking at FA pitchers right now than committing two years to Bartolo Colon.

[Brian the Automator]

So he makes slightly more than Lieber.

Lieber can make 4M more in incentives.

 

[tigerbrew]

At $3.6M, his pay is similiar to the veterans in our bullpen such as Mota, Torres, Turnbow and Riske. If Vargas can't be traded, he's not a bad bullpen arm to have.

[rluzinski]

Why do I have a feeling that in may, Melvin will have to try and explain to use why Vargas is worth $3.6 to be the mop up reliever?

[don1481]

At $3.6M, his pay is similiar to the veterans in our bullpen such as Mota, Torres, Turnbow and Riske. If Vargas can't be traded, he's not a bad bullpen arm to have.

 

Because having Vargas load up the bases in a one-inning stint is exactly what I want in my bullpen!

 

In all seriousness, Vargas better not be on the team come Opening Day. I'd love to see him shipped off for a prospect or two.

[JohnBriggs12]

Why do I have a feeling that in may, Melvin will have to try and explain to use why Vargas is worth $3.6 to be the mop up reliever?

That's on the mark rluzinski.

 

It's very likely Melvin has been shopping Vargas for weeks and the interest was well below what he figured it would be. Otherwise, he would never have gotten to this point.

 

I get pounded on here whenever I suggest that there are times when non-tendering is the smart choice. Yeah, $3.6 million doesn't break the bank, but it's still not fiscally responsible to pay the 24th or 25th man on the roster that much and there's certainly no guaranty that anyone else wants him at that price either.

[rluzinski]

No, you get pounded out for suggesting 2-4 Brewers a year should be non-tendered. No one would disagree that "there are times when non-tendering is the right choice. What they disagree with is how often that situation really occurs. It's not often that eating the contract of a struggling player is the right choice.

 

As for whether it would have been the right choice to non-tender Vargas, Melvin is really the only one who is in any position to gauge the interest other teams might have in Vargas. I just always worry about the ol' "justify a bad trade by keeping bad players" trap some GMs fall into. I hope that has nothing to do with keeping Vargas because he has little value to the Brewers with regard to possible roles for him this year.

[TooLiveBrew]

At $3.6 million, he probably has some real value in terms of nugget-mining. There are quite a few teams that'd upgrade at their #4 or 5 with Vargas. The Nationals pop into my mind right off the bat, since RFK would supress the horrible SLG Claudio has allowed the best, save PetCo (but he'd have no value to SD). Vargas for Felipe Lopez? Vargas + Turnbow for Rauch? There are a lot of possibilities with Wash.'s roster imo.

[sbrylski]

The Nationals pop into my mind right off the bat, since RFK would supress the horrible SLG Claudio has allowed the best...

 

New stadium, bro!

[TooLiveBrew]

It's ready for 2008? Oops. I still think their roster matches up well for us...

 

Well don't I feel sheepish... alright, but no more freebies, you baaaad boy!

 

http://content7.flixster.com/question/35/70/54/3570549_std.jpg

[DougJones43]

Vargas is terrible. I would think that 5.09 ERA, 1.54 WHIP guys with bad backs who can't pitch more than 5 innings could be had for a lot less than $3.6M. Maybe Doug Melvin is impressed by his W-L record? I hope he has plans to trade Vargas, but I would think most teams that want that kind of production would just do the sensible thing and sign a minimum-salary free agent.

 

I still think the only reason he got the #5 spot over Villanueva last year was because he was given preference due to being part of Melvin's "blockbuster" deal. I was really hoping we just got rid of this guy, but it looks like DM is still trying to sap some value from the Estrada trade.

[DrWood]

the guy can bring it at 96, at least when he's relieving. of course that 96 mph fastball doesn't move much...

yeah, I'm hoping he's on some other team on opening day, too, but I won't cry if he's the 6th starter and they've acquired some quality for bush and or capuano.

[brewers4eric]

I really don't think that the Nationals would be interested in Claudio Vargas. Recall that he was released by Washington back in 2005. It seems ironic that a pitcher that the Nationals cut loose is going to make 3.6 million with the Brewers.

[Ennder]

Vargas had an interesting 2006 showing a bit more upside than he had in previous years. He continued that trend for about a month with the Brewers and then went back to his nibbling ways and started to BB too many to keep up his value. I really would have not been upset with just cutting him loose myself. I cannot envision him being more than a bullpen guy for our team.

[danzig6767]

My guess Melvin's thinking on Vargas is

 

1. I'll hold on to him and wait until some team has an injury or in spring training decides they want an experienced 5th starter who isn't terrible in that role.

 

2. He thinks he may still trade one of Capuano/Bush and wants Vargas around as insurance in case this happens.

 

3. Doug wants Vargas around for spring training just in case one of our starters has an injury and if that doesn't happen, he feels some team would almost for sure take Vargas even if we got little back in return except salary relief.

 

Like most everyone here though, i see no role for Vargas after breaking camp unless a trade went down for either Capuano/Bush or a starter got hurt in camp.

[DougJones43]

Isn't $3.6M a little steep for a bad insurance policy? I understand the theory of wanting depth at starting pitching. However, the Brewers already have a lot of starting pitching options, and I really think that even if they did feel they needed more starters, a pitcher of similar quality could have been had for much, much less.

The only way this things ends up good is if Melvin is actually able to deal Vargas for something of value. But I think the potential that the Brewers could get stuck with him at that price isn't worth the gamble.

[Blancofan1]

So by my math, after JJ, Cappy, and Bush get their offers done we should be looking at somewhere between 71-74 million mark. Does that sound right? Looked at the salary page and figured JJ at $400K plus, Bush around $500K and Cappy a bit over $3M.