Torrealba remains in NL West, signs with Padres
The question of where Yorvit Torrealba would finally land has been answered, and Colorado Rockies fans who will miss their former starting catcher should have plenty of opportunities to see him play.
After rejecting a reported offer from the Rockies for two years and $5.6 million, Torrealba has signed a one-year contract worth $1.25 million with the San Diego Padres. After failing to bridge the gap between what the Rockies were offering and what Torrealba wanted, the team moved and signed Miguel Olivo to a one-year deal.
Torrealba has played all but a half season in the National League West. After four and a half season in San Francisco, he was traded to Seattle in 2006. After the season, he was traded to the Rockies for Marcos Carvajal.
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Yorvit should fire his agent…or was he himself responsible for this debacle? Lemme see…turning down two years and $5.6 million for one year at $1.25. Hmmm.
A shame really. I’ve said it before, some guys/agents don’t learn from the “mistakes” of others and elect to push the envelope too far.
I hope Yorvi has a good year and can propel it into a few more seasons with decent paydays.
And that’s the good news – a $1.5 million miscalculation just for 2010 while trying to get an extra couple hundred thousand. Hitting in PETCO will surely drop that batting average and limited power numbers – so good luck getting that money contract in 2011.
At $2.0m per year I too wanted Torre back, but no way at almost $3.0m per year. That clanking sound you hear is almost all of the MLB clubs closing their cash registers for this off season with several free agents still unsigned.
I have to wonder how mad Torrealba is at Melvin Roman (his agent) right now. That is a ton of money to leave on the table. He must have been thinking that the Mets would offer $3 million per year without blinking.
I have made it clear that I am a HUGE Torrealba fan, but I think the Rockies offered him a more than fair amount of money, probably too much, and he overplayed his hand and lost…big time.
I do hope that he plays well enough in San Diego to not find himself out of baseball after the 2010 season.
Just jaw dropping. Torrealba left more on the table, but in the end I think it will work out. I will stand up and cheer when I see Yorvit in the lineup against us, because I’ll never forget what he meant to this team. In my eyes, he has gone the way of Garrett Atkins who decided to be selfish and forget that playing on a winning team should mean more than making the most money possible. It’s baseball karma. He pushed it, and he lost… big time. The Rockies showed good faith in offering him more money than he deserved for a back-up role, no less. I wish him the best of luck with the Padres, who will be basement dwellers in the West.
He can join the Josh Fogg crying in one’s beer club. I think Fogg’s mistake was a bit worse, but of the same caliber. The lesson: don’t overplay your hand.
I’d rather have Olivo anyway. Torre’s not going to play like he did last year, and his career lines are well..terrible. He was instant magic last year for us, but it’s time to move on.
He was overated these last couple of years but was a good dug out guy. Defense was horrible and offense lacked besides that end run he had last year and in 07
You’ve really got to wonder what Yorvit’s agent was thinking. Nowadays we see the occasional overpay for free agents, but there really wasn’t any reason to think that any other club would match what the Rockies were willing to pay; the Rockies put some monetary value on continuity and on Yorvit’s supposed rapport with Latin American pitchers. I guess nobody else saw that Latin American skill.
Not as bad as Atkins’ agent money wise, since Atkins may eventually be out as much as $17 million by refusing to take the Rox 3 year/21 million offer. But at least there was some rational basis for that decision since Atkins was probably confident he’s post better number in 2009 than he did in 2008. Yorvit? It’s a mystery to me why he thought he was so valuable. The good news is: he’s an easy out, and he stays in our division where we get to face him 18 times a year.
Good luck to Yorvit hitting in PetCo Park for 81 games – he’ll need it.
I think the Rockies came out of these catcher negotiations the better – Olivo should be solid. And I look for a nice rebound year for Chris Iannetta…
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