Royals' Grudzielanek gets extension for 2007
Mark Grudzielanek's contract extension with the Royals is worth $4 million and includes a player option for the 2008 season at $4 million to $4.5 million, depending on plate appearances next year.
It sounded like a bad idea before we knew about the player option. Now it's quite a bit worse. There wasn't a team in baseball willing to give Grudzielanek $8 million over two years last winter. His big game tonight upped his OPS to 734, but that's still down from 779 in 2004 and 741 last year. He's played in 140 games once this decade, and since he's 36, he's only likely to get more fragile. There just isn't any upside at all here. He might be a $4 million player right now, but there's nowhere for him to go but down.
I like him for this year and next, but 2008 at $4 million? Surely there would be someone else we could get by then. Just my $.02.