Tampa Bay Rays Sign Pat Burrell to 2-Year, $16 Million Deal

Just after 4:00PM today, the Tampa Bay Rays announced the signing of Pat Burrell to a 2-year, $16 million contract. Burrell will bring badly needed right handed power to the Rays line-up. While he will likely play DH most, if not all of the time, he brings consistent power to the Rays line-up. He's hit 30+ home runs in 5 of the last 8 seasons (251 career HRs) and he has proven to be very durable since joining MLB in 2001 (he's played about 150 games each year).

While he won't steal many (or any - he's was probably the slowest dude in the World Series) bases and he does strike out a lot (you can check out his stats here), he was a reasonably priced guy that filled a key need of the Rays. He may not be Mark Teixiera and 9=8.com would have preferred Milton Bradley (he looks poised to sign a 3-year, $30 million deal with the Cubs - see our earlier piece on him), but we'll take him.

The Rays have made a couple of great moves this off-season even if we didn't sign CC Sabathia, AJ Burnett or any other 2-initial players. I really like the addition of Nelson to the bullpen, the trade for Matt Joyce (this is a bit more risky for the Rays if they are stricken with starting pitching injuries, but they had to make the move for financial reasons) as well as the signing of Pat Burrell. The Rays still have time to make a few other moves, which I expect they will do over the coming weeks. I'm hopeful that they will find a way to sign Rocco

Based on my early analysis of these moves, I have to give props to Andrew, Matt and the rest of Rays management for making the moves they've made. While they may not work out as we all hope, they're clearly sticking to their strategy and executing on it pretty methodically.

Go Rays!