Three years, $13 million, plus an option for another year.
This one doesn't seem quite as crazy as some of the other signings we've seen, even though it's still too much. The trouble is that the Rangers are losing two starting outfielders - Carlos Lee and Gary Matthews Jr. - to free agency, and the only young outfielders they have close to being ready (Jason Botts and Nelson Cruz) are question marks. Catalanotto is at least pretty likely to be an average or slightly above-average player in the first and possibly second years of this contract, so he's definitely providing the Rangers with an upgrade at a price that, for this market, isn't backbreaking.
Catalanotto, by the way, was a player some Pirates fans would've liked the Bucs to acquire. I like Catalanotto - as a player who has quietly gotten the job done for years, he appeals to me - but he makes more sense for the Rangers than he does for the Pirates, who would gain less from having Catalanotto now and lose more by still having to pay him in 2009.