Miller vs Robertson... Better for Jays?

[north-of-border]

Rafael Soriano

he had a near 1.00 ERA first half last season but then bombed the second half. Nats let him walk for nothing. Like whats JAYS did with Jannsen. He is proven, decently young and solid in the 9th inning. buy low candidate.

He is the Perfect guy you sign on the cheaps to be your 8th inning guy and hopefully he takes over the closer role by May.

I think AA should sign this guy ASAP

[Skin Blues]

He is proven, decently young and solid in the 9th inning.

He's 35, which is old. He's a good pitcher, and that's what matters. If he's cheap then sure, I'd be glad to have him. But he's been making $14M/yr the past two seasons and hasn't underperformed (low-3s ERA and the peripherals to support it). Even if he signs at Zach Duke-money (as hilarious as that sounds) he's not worth it, and therein lies the problem. Thing is, that good performance from 2013-2014 was worth 1.2 WAR which is worth maybe $8M total. Factor in the high leverage nature of the innings and it bumps up to ~$10M, yet it cost the Nats $28M. And that's with things going pretty much as best as they could have hoped; two healthy, effective seasons from a guy in his mid 30s.

So personally, I'll be glad if we get none of the high priced relievers and try a few guys on cheap contracts and hope somebody sticks. Joba, Fujikawa, Hawkins, Stauffer... and there are good relievers going for <$2M on one year contracts too, so why waste such a huge portion of the payroll on such a marginal increase? I am absolutely not convinced that any of those high priced relievers are going to be any better than Peralta, Frasor, Belisle, Cotts, etc. Both the floor and the ceiling is so low for relievers. At best you're looking at a player worth $15M and that's highly unlikely. Whereas if you "hit" with a starter or position player he could be worth $25-30M+ like Hughes, Kluber, Quintana, Brantley, Lucroy, Frazier, Dozier, Yan Gomes (ha), etc last year. Rather than dump a huge amount on Robertson or trading valuable assets for Holland, imagine if we just signed Joba, Stauffer and Cotts instead? The bullpen would be in MUCH better shape and would probably cost around the same (or less) as signing Robertson alone.

[phillipmike]

As for the title of the OP... neither. Robertson signed with the White Sox. 4 years for at least 40 million.

[dagger]

Robertson to the White Sox for 4yr/$40m-plus (Heyman says 4/46)

Also looks like Sox will be trading for Jeff Samardzija