According to Enrique Rojas via PhillyFriar of The Good Phight, the Phillies are close to giving 39-year-old reliever Jose Contreras a 2-year deal, worth somewhere around $5 million. As TGP notes, his SIERA last season was 3.19, better than everybody in the pen but Ryan Madson. But this will only be his 2nd season as a full-time reliever, and he’ll be playing into his 40s with this contract. I’ve never been a fan of shelling out big money to relievers because they’re so up-and-down from year to year. If this is the only new multi-year deal a reliever gets from us, I’ll be okay with it, but if we start handing out Danys Baez’s to every old dude who’s thrown a bullpen session in the past decade, I won’t be happy about it.
Scott Mathieson, Antonio Bastardo, Michael Schwimer, and BJ Rosenberg can fill out the bullpen just fine for a ton less money. Please be aware of this, Ruben.