Goodbye to Al Reyes
Troy Percival is now officially a Tampa Bay Ray.
Although Percival is 38, I still really like this deal for Tampa Bay. For 2 years and 8 million dollars, the franchise formerly known as the Devil Rays have upgraded from one of the worst closers in baseball to potentially one of the best.
Although many people may not have noticed, Percival pitched very well last year for the Cardinals, sporting an ERA of 1.80 in 40 innings. If he can even come close to matching that kind of performance (which doesn’t seem ridiculous considering his track record), he will be a huge improvement over Al Reyes, who put up a Borowski-esque 4.90 ERA last year as a closer while somehow managing to give up 13 HR in 60 innings.
Assuming Percival stays healthy, the Rays (man, that’s hard to get used to) should have a significantly improved bullpen next year, something that they sorely need after last year’s heinous excuse for a bullpen.
December 1st, 2007 at 2:55 pm
Al’s still kickin’ around. Tampa picked up his option for 2008 on Nov. 14. I guess he’ll have to Big Papi’s bitch in the seventh and eighth inning instead. I like the signing too, but I’d be a little concerned about Percy’s health. He only pitched on back-to-back days twice last season.