BJ and the Yanks
B.J. Ryan, coming off one year of closing for the Baltimore Orioles and his only All-Star Game appearance, has signed a five year deal with the Toronto Blue Jays for $47 million dollars. Ryan, who will turn 30 in a month, has a career 16-19 record with a 3.54 ERA and 42 saves in 405 career appearances, but has an ERA of 2.60 over the last three seasons, with batters hitting .209 against him, and averaging over 12 Ks per nine innings pitched.
That last part is pretty damned impressive. Ryan, a former 17th round pick by Cincinnati, is unique in that unlike many other relievers/closers currently in baseball, Ryan wasn’t a starter in the minors - although his time in the minors was short anyway. After beginning his career in ‘99 in AA, he was promoted to AAA, then pitched in a game for the Reds before being traded to Baltimore in a deal for Juan Guzman. Ryan bounced back and forth between AAA and the Orioles that season and next before settling in full time with the Orioles, originally as a situational lefty, then progressively moved into a setup role until eventually being moved into the closer role full time last season. This recent jump has been one of the things that has alarmed “experts” with the signing - Ryan’s lack of experience in the closer role.
Ryan took his pitching to the next level in 2004, when he settled down his control (dropping his walks per 9 innings from 5.15 to 4.83 to 3.62) while increasing his strikeouts and dropping his ERA down a full run two seasons straight (4.68 to 3.40 to 2.28). When he was moved into the closer role in 2005, he maintained his 2004 form, presumably justifying a five year deal, averaging $9.4 million per season.
Now whether or not Ryan is worth $9.4 million a year isn’t at issue here - it’s how the “value” came about, and a few misguided opinions. A popular misconception is that somehow the Yankees are at fault here, mainly because any time a team spends money, especially above perceived “market value”, it has something to do with the Yankees. In this case, there are two separate fingers blaming the Yankees for this one:
1) The Yankees were interested in signing Ryan, so the Blue Jays had to bid high in order to get him away from the free-spending Yanks.
Sure, the Yankees were interested in signing Ryan - their bullpen isn’t exactly great, so they’d definitely be interested in a pitcher averaging 12 ks per nine innings, especially one who’s left handed. But with the Yankees having a Hall of Fame caliber closer already under contract, they came right out and told Ryan that they wanted him in a setup role. Ryan wasn’t interested in being a setup man, so that pretty much ended negotiation, especially since Ryan had interest from other teams. Tom Gordon went through this before he originally signed with the Yankees, but few teams were willing to take a shot on Gordon as a closer, and the Yankees were willing to give Gordon fair market value for him to go into the setup role. That wasn’t feasible for Ryan, as they was plenty of suitors for Ryan, and the Yankees, despite what some might believe, wouldn’t pay $9 million a year for a setup man.
2) The Blue Jays had to sign Ryan above “market value” in order to compete with the huge payrolls of the Yankees and Red Sox have.
That’s an even dumber argument. While I understand the perceived “need” to sign Ryan might be there for Toronto, the need to “spend money” isn’t there. If anything, it hurts the team competing with the high-payroll teams even more. Putting so much of your alloted payroll into one player will prevent the team from signing other players of need. While having a good closer is a nice thing to have, it wasn’t the most pressing need for Toronto this offseason. Miguel Batista was Toronto’s closer last season, where he blew 8 saves in 39 opportunities (79.48%) Ryan in Baltimore blew 5 in 41 attempts (87.8%). Was that increase worth a $47 million dollar investment on a team that had zero players with 100 RBI or runs scored last season? A team that started Gregg Zaun at catcher 121 times last season? Of course, this is a team who signed Corey Koskie to play third despite having Eric Hinske signed to a multi-year deal, then trading for Shea Hillenbrand, assuring that the team had three starting third basemen, securing $10 million into that three headed monster. Yet going into 2006, the Blue Jays second highest paid player (behind Roy Halladay) will be their closer, which is like buying a top grade refrigerator and not having enough money to buy groceries.
Yankee haters rejoice, though. Thanks to Billy Wagner signing with the Mets, the Phillies have looked toward Gordon to potentially be their new closer, leaving the Yanks to compete with a team who is willing to pay market closer value to a player who they wanted to sign as their setup man. Now, with the market value of a closer apparently set in the 9-11 million range (by Ryan and Wagner), and a team (in Philadelphia) that doesn’t have the financial restrictions of a small market team, we’ll see in fact if the Yankees are willing to shell out closer money to a middle reliever, or whether the Yankees just get used as a bargaining ploy by Gordon’s representation to get more guaranteed money from Philadelphia.