Sunday, December 13, 2009

About Keeping Everyone On Board...

Jen Langosh of MLB.com tweeted that the Bucs have tendered Zach Duke, but cut loose Matt Capps and Phil Dumatrait, and Dejan Kovacevic of the Post Gazette has confirmed the moves in an article today.

Their 2009 deals, according to Cot's Contracts, were worth $2.2M for Duke, who should get a hefty raise; $2.425M for Capps, who would get a bump (and maybe a big one) even after an abysmal year, and $401,5000 for Dumatrait, who was worse than Capps in 2009.

Duke and Capps were arbitration eligible; Dumatrait was just flat-out released. Dumatrait didn't have any options left, and was probably not going to make the 2010 roster, even as lefty-challenged as it is now. Apparently the suits offered Capps and Dumatrait deals that they thought they could top on the open market.

They have a negotiating window with Duke. If the two sides don't agreed to a contract by January 19th, they'll exchange arbitration figures. Then they have until sometime in February, depending when the hearing is scheduled, to keep working on a deal.

Now that the Bucs suddenly have a pair of openings on their 40-man roster, expect to see them sign a couple of relievers to fill the slots fairly soon.

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