Jerry Crasnick of ESPN via Twitter says,
Kelvim Escobar contract details: $1.25 million guaranteed base salary, and a $125,00 bonus for making the Mets’ Opening Day roster.
In addition, Escobar can receive $2 million in incentives based on games pitched, and $1 million more in incentives based on games finished
Roger Rubin of the Daily News sheds some light on Escobar’s transition to the bullpen.
Before the righthander missed almost all of the past two seasons with shoulder injuries, he was a dynamic starter for the Angels, going 18-7 with a 3.40 ERA in 2007. Minaya told the Daily News Friday, “With Escobar, we are looking at him as a reliever.”
There’s an extremely good chance that Escobar could take over as the setup man for closer Francisco Rodriguez or at least battle Ryota Igarashi for the role.
As far as low risk – high reward type signings go, this could prove to be a big addition for the Mets.
Based on the contract details, the Mets would have been nuts not to sign Escobar.
And who knows… Maybe at some point in the season as Escobar increases his arm strength, he might decide that he’d like to start a few games down the road.
Lately everybody has loved knocking Omar around, but I give him two thumbs up for this signing.
