NASHVILLE -- Outfielder Jose Guillen and the Kansas City Royals have reached a preliminary agreement for a three year, $36 million deal, a relative of the ballplayer told ESPNdeportes.com.
The agreement will be complete when Guillen passes a physical exam, scheduled for Tuesday.
It's probably too early to call this the Gil Meche signing of 2007-2008, but Guillen will be 32 in May, has never been a great player, has attitude problems, may have used performance-enhancing drugs, and hit .216/.276/.398 for the Nationals less than two years ago. It's remarkable to think that the Royals could have $23 million in 2008 payroll wrapped up in Meche and Guillen.
Not that there's any good reason for the Pirates to be incredibly active in the free agent market anyway, but stuff like this just makes things tougher. They'll apparently be restricted to bargain shopping on players like Matt Clement and Brett Tomko.