David Eckstein’s bringing his chippiness and swagger and clutchiness and knows-how-to-win-ness to Canada, eh?

Congratulations, Toronto fans! This will be your team in ten short months!The price tag? Just you guess. I was figuring 4 years, $36 million, maybe, or at least 3/27, maybe 3/30. Survey SAYS:

1 year, $4.5 million.

What??

For all of the loudmouthed ignoramus hullabaloo constantly spewing from the Raccoon Lodge like the radio from hell–stuck on the highest volume setting, stuck on the All Eckstein All the Time Station, and no way to turn it off–that’s not much of a contract, is it?

For some sense of just how long and loud supposedly expert baseball writers sing the glorious laudes domini of the great and powerful Eckstein, read this page. (Warning: It will take several hours, even if you’re just skimming.) And that’s just a sampling.

But the amazing–and reassuring–thing is that for all the writers’ best efforts to nominate David Eckstein for sainthood and possible world rulership, not a single actual baseball front office is buying.  Think about that: Baseball front offices are run by people like Ed Wade and Ned Colletti and Wayne Krivsky and Bill Bavasi and Brian Sabean, and not one of them was willing to give David Eckstein the kind of contract he and his agent were after, which presumably was something at least in the $30-35 million range. Even the low-watt bulbs in charge of some major league franchises looked at David Eckstein, presumably, and saw the same thing we all see: An injury-prone second baseman that can handle shortstop, although you don’t want him there every day, that has decent on-base skills and zero power.

What’s that kind of player worth? I’d say four or five million a year.

I extremely doubt Eckstein didn’t have any multi-year offers on the table. He probably had one or two 3-year offers, but I’m guessing they were for stuff like $20 million, and teams told his agent that was all they wanted to commit to because of his injury problems, so Eckstein decided to take a one-year deal and try to prove himself healthy, then go for the big contract again next year.

Why he chose the Blue Jays when he probably could have gotten 1 year, $4.5 million from pretty much anybody, well, your guess is as good as mine. Maybe they were the only team other than the Giants or something that was willing to promise him their everyday shortstop job?


Also, the Devil Rays took a one year flyer on Cliff Floyd, pretty much for free. This was much more what any sentient being would have expected, since Floyd is pretty much shot.

Floyd did hit .284/.373/.422 in his 40% of a season last year, and though that was with the Cubs and thus is a little better than his actual skill level, he does have outstanding plate discipline and a touch of power, making him a worthwhile piece of an AL team at a low price. Not a bad signing by the Rays, but if they’re planning on putting him in right field, as the AP article suggests, they won’t be able to claim to be surprised when their pitchers hold a party to celebrate the fact that he just hurt himself again. At this point, Floyd is strictly a DH/pinch hitter.