Defensive Indifference

Carlos Silva is now a Mariner. That’s right folks, for the bargain-bin price of 4 years and 48 million dollars, Seattle has added a (at best) slightly-above average 28 year-old starter to their rotation.

Now, given the recent tendency of MLB teams to hand out fat contracts to mediocre starting pitchers (e.g. Kevin Millwood: 5 years, 60 million), I can’t say I’m too surprised. But still—12 million a year for Carlos Silva? Seriously? We’re talking about a guy who struck out only 89 batters in 202 innings last season and whose sole redeeming quality is his above-average control. Carlos Silva is essentially a Paul Byrd clone, and Byrd was only payed 7.5 million this year as opposed to the 12 million that Silva will recieve…FOR THE NEXT FOUR YEARS.

Yes, I know that league average innings eaters are valuable in today’s game, but are they really this valuable? Personally, I can think of about 18927412 better ways for the Mariners to spend 48 million dollars, but maybe that’s just me.