Per Jon Morosi at FOX Sports, the Baltimore Orioles and relief pitcher Kevin Gregg have agreed to a two year, $10 million contract with a club/vesting option for a third year. Complete details haven't been released and the agreement is pending a physical.
Gregg is the presumptive closer for the Orioles, who still haven't learned their lesson about signing relievers to multi-year contracts. The silver lining, if you choose to see it, is that the Orioles chose Gregg over type-A pitcher Grant Balfour and therefore will not lose their second round draft pick.
According to Dan Connolly, Gregg said that he chose the Orioles because they gave him the best opportunity to close. I'm sure that has something to do with it, but the fact that this offer was on the table for a month leads me to believe Gregg was hoping for a better opportunity. I wish he'd found it.
Baltimore will be Gregg's fourth organization in four years, having spent the last three with the Toronto Blue Jays, Chicago Cubs, and Florida Marlins. Here are his stats for the last three years. I normally wouldn't include saves because they're stupid, but the Orioles apparently seem to care about them.
| Year | Tm | G | SV | IP | H | ER | HR | BB | SO | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | FLA | 3.41 | 72 | 29 | 68.2 | 51 | 26 | 3 | 37 | 58 | 128 | 1.282 | 4.8 | 7.6 |
| 2009 | CHC | 4.72 | 72 | 23 | 68.2 | 60 | 36 | 13 | 30 | 71 | 95 | 1.311 | 3.9 | 9.3 |
| 2010 | TOR | 3.51 | 63 | 37 | 59.0 | 52 | 23 | 4 | 30 | 58 | 119 | 1.390 | 4.6 | 8.8 |
Now that he's an Oriole I hope for the best, but this isn't a move that I agree with. Gregg doesn't stink, but he's a relief pitcher. There are a number of other arms out there that would probably provide similar production (Jon Rauch, Will Ohman) for less money and less years.