Normally, this news would be considered diary worthy. But as I said in a comment the other day, misery loves company so lets pour some more salt in the wounds.
John Thomson agreed to a one year, $500,000 (plus incentives) contract with the Blue Jays today. $500,000. It didn't cost them a multi-year deal. Or their best reliever. It cost them about $50,000 more than what the M's will be paying Horacio Ramirez this year. And $7.5 million less than what they will pay Batista. And about $100,000 more than the M's will pay Baek and Woods (whoever wins the 5th spot).
162 Game Averages (per career stats):
Thomson - 202.0 IP, 222 H, 127/58 K/BB, 4.69 ERA
Batista - 161.3 IP, 165 H, 101/69 K/BB, 4.46 ERA
Ramirez - 208.3 IP, 212 H, 99/80 K/BB, 4.13 ERA
All three are GB pitchers. All three are average pitchers. None of the three are anyone to get really excited about.
Just one costs a whole lot less than the others. Good times.
Update [2007-1-11 14:20:19 by Trent]:: Just to update this post, Thomson will actually earn a base salary of $1.5 million if he makes the roster out of spring training, with the possibility of earning between $4-5 million in incentives if he pitches all year. This doesn't change my opinion of the deal one bit. It's a terrific signing by the Jays and if they do in fact pay him between $4-5 million, it means he pitched above expectations and will still be a bargain in this market.