Well...not much suprises me anymore...but the when I saw that the Diamondbacks decided to pick up the option year of Jon Rauch yesterday, well....that was an unpleasant surprise. The D-backs were on the hook for $2M for him next year, and decided to pick up the 2010 option year at $2.9M.
"He's been a successful Major League reliever," Arizona general manager Josh Byrnes said. "Having Jon for two more years is a good thing.
Had they not picked up his option year he would have been eligible for salary arbitration in '10. So....the D-backs are locking up their big gun Jon Rauch because they expect a banner performance out of him next year and don't want to get burned by arbitration that may not go their way.....hmm.....
Somebody might want to run over to Chase Field and see if Rauch is still on the mound getting shelled. I think the season ended and Bo Mel just left him out there.
I realize that Rauch did have an impressive start when coming to Arizona at mid-season, but he just fell apart after that. Maybe at $2.9M it's not that big of a deal and he'll come around, but I'm sorry, I just don't see it.
