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December 13, 2007
Otsuka Non-Tendered
Texas declined to offer a contract to reliever AKINORI OTSUKA. Texas offered contracts to catcher GERALD LAIRD and outfielder MARLON BYRD.
Just when you thought the Young/Gonzalez trade couldn’t look any worse…
The months-long mystery of “How badly hurt is Otsuka?� deepened in the worst possible way (short of Tommy John surgery). Apparently he’s healthy but still not throwing off a mound, and Texas didn’t want to commit $5 million to a 35-year-old question mark. Texas probably wanted (and still wants) to sign him to an incentive-based deal unworkable under arbitration-based minimum salary rules.
I can’t review the available information and claim that Texas made a mistake. But that doesn’t make me any happier. Incidentally, I don’t think the non-tender had anything to do with Otsuka’s recommendation that Japanese import Kosuke Fukudome sign with San Diego.
2008 just got a little more depressing.
Posted by Lucas at December 13, 2007 08:24 AM