FanPost

Juan Rivera: Setting The Market For Garrett Jones?

According to MLBTR, the Dodgers have agreed to a one-year deal with Juan Rivera for $4.5M.

Except for hitting right-handed and being three years older, Rivera is very similar to Garrett Jones. They're both 1B/OF types who are best suited to a platoon/part-time role. They both have moderate power and weak on-base skills. Rivera's career OPS+ is 104. Jones' is 108, inflated of course by his fluke 2009 season. I think the estimate for Jones' arbitration salary was something like $2.4M. Obviously, as a free agent, Rivera figured to get more. Still, it's surprising he'd get that much, especially considering that his OPS+ has reached triple digits only twice in the last five years.

I'm still seeing speculation that the Pirates will non-tender Jones. I think that's unlikely, but then I didn't think they'd dump Ronny Cedeno. This does show that Jones is a good deal at $2.4M.  We can also recall a certain disastrous signing of a platoon corner OF for 2 yrs/$4M. Non-tendering Jones would be a hard move to defend.

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