Argh! Eyre! Winn-win?

According the Merc's account of the five vets re-joining the team, the Giants made a multi-year offer to Eyre last week but, while Eyre said that he wants to remain a Giant, he felt compelled to gauge his value in free agency.

Holy shades of David Bell! That's basically what he said before he hightailed out of here for Philly and pulled off a Robby Thompson (career tanked after signing for the big bucks). And according to the Merc, the writer thinks he can command $2.5 to $3.0 million because Ray King, who they think is comparable, will earn $2.5M next year with a club option for $2.75M in 2007. And one player agent told the writer that Eyre will easily secure a rich contract if he shops around. The agent was quoted as saying, "I've already had conversations with several teams, and some of them are going to line up for this cat."

If that is what he could earn, I would prefer the Giants not take the chance and sign him because last year was a career year for him, pitching well against LHP and RHP, whereas he couldn't get RHP out before. If I knew that he would pitch again like he did in 2005, I would take it, but he's 34 I think and coming off a career year where he did something he's never really done before in his career. It looks like a case of paying dearly for peak value.

The other news, sort of, was that Colletti said that the Giants plan to speak with Winn's agent about a multi-year contract which could create more payroll flexibility by paying him more later. Winn's agent happens to be ex-Giants prospect (and I think high draft pick) Craig Landis, who hopefully doesn't hold anything against the Giants that his baseball career never flourished in the Giants farm system (or after).