Reliever Cordero Signs with Reds, Outfielder Torii Hunter to Angels
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MLB.com reports that the Cincinnati Reds and free agent former Milwaukee Brewers closer Francisco Cordero have come to terns on a four-year, $46 million contract with a with a $12 million club option for the 2012 season and a $1 million buyout. The signing is pending a physical to take place this week.
With the deal, the Brewers will need shore up a bullpen which has lost one of the NL’s top closers and, as reported by Yahoo sports as cited in a report on Ticker, “are close to also losing free-agent righthander Scott Linebrink to the Chicago White Sox.”
The Yahoo report also notes;
Cordero, 32, enjoyed a terrific 2007 campaign with the Milwaukee Brewers, going 0-4 with a 2.98 ERA and 44 saves in 66 games. The Dominican righthander was named to the National League All-Star team and finished second in the league in saves.
In Cincinnati, Cordero will replace David Weathers as the Reds’ closer, a move which figures to shore up one of baseball’s weakest bullpens over the last few years. Weathers was solid for the Reds last season, going 2-6 with a 3.59 ERA and 33 saves.
On the West Coast, the AL West champion Los Angeles Angels have more than solidified the middle of their batting order with the signing of free agent centerfielder Torii Hunter to hit behind rightfielder Vladimir Guerrero in the lineup.
Hunter, a 10 year veteran who has played his entire career until now with the Minnesota Twins, hit .297 with 28 homers and drove in 107 runs for them in 2007.
According to AP sports writer Ken Peters’ report for Yahoo sports, Hunter and the Angels;
Agreed to a five-year, $90 million deal Wednesday…. subject to Hunter’s passing a physical.
Although Hunter’s arrival seems to make last season’s center fielder, Gary Matthews Jr. odd man out in an outfield with Guerrero in right and [Garret] Anderson in left, Los Angeles manager Mike Scioscia said it would give him more options.
He plans to rotate players at DH and use Matthews to spell Guerrero and Anderson.
“Torii is going to be in center field virtually every day. Gary will be in the outfield almost every day, so the other two guys will split up the DH,” Scioscia said in a conference call.
“We want all four of those bats in the lineup.”
With Hunter gone, the low-budget, weak-hitting Twins’ are left with a huge void in an offense which, after 1st baseman Justin Morneau and outfielders Michael Cuddyer and Jason Kubel, is awfully lean.
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