Doumit Deal Is Done

According to ESPN's Jerry Crasnick, the Pirates have come to terms with Ryan Doumit on a contract that will cover his 3 arbitration years with a club option for his first year of free agency.  Financial terms are expected tomorrow when the contract is announced.

BTW Take:

No surprise at this point.  This will be a 3 year deal probably around $12-$15M plus the club option.  This makes sense for Doumit.  As for the Pirates, this is a gamble with Doumits inability to stay healthy.  Some will point to him never being able to play 140+ games a year as this being a waste.  The problem there, Pirates fans were spoiled by Jason Kendall and his durability.  Catchers don't generally catch 140+ games a year unless they DH in the AL.  This could be a good contract, depending on health and Ryan's ability to improve on the "breakout" year he had in 2008.

Don't expect a .350 hitter.  It would be more realistic Doumit being a .280 to .290 hitter with 20HR's and improved defense while starting 110+ games.  Those stats would do the Pirates well and cement Doumit as a solid MLB catcher with the potential to be considered among the best in the NL.

One other important thing would be for Ryan to have a complete season and not tail off towards the end of the year as he did in 2008.

 

UPDATE 11:37:

Jerry Crasnick is reporting the "deal could be worth a total value of $20 million over four years or $30 million over five years."

After a few calls, text messages and emails.  The 3 years of arbitration could be worth between $8 million and $10 million depending on the source.  The fourth year is supposedly a team option that can be automatically invoked with certain performance levels, one of which is games played over the first 3 years.  The forth year is believed to be worth between $6 and $8 million.  The last year is supposedly a straight team option between $7 and $10 million.  Total contract, based on sources, is between $21 million and $28 million with options included.  There is also a buy out tied to the fifth year, this number varies from my sources between $500K and $3M.

I guess this will tell me how good my sources on this are.  I hope I got all the numbers straight, I've been under the weather along with my wife today.