The Bullpen Bucks

With most of the chickies in line for the 2010 bullpen (Octavio Dotel being the mystery man; is he that hard to sign or is his agent playing one offer off another?), we thought we'd take a look at what the 2009 pen, left intact with their 2010 pricetags, would have cost versus the new look pen:

Matt Capps ($3,500,000 + $425,000 bonuses)
John Grabow ($3,500,000)
Sean Burnett ($425,000)
Tyler Yates ($975,000)
Jesse Chavez ($425,000)
Craig Hansen ($825,000 - 2009; minor league deal - 2010)
Donnie Veal ($425,000)

Yates and Hanson were replaced by Meek and Jackson, so the 2010 bullpen payroll, at the going rate, would have been $9,550,000 with bonuses and no movement. (It would be $11,350,000 assuming Yates and Hansen were not replaced.)

2010:

Joel Hanrahan ($450,000)
Evan Meek ($425,000)
Javier Lopez ($775,000 + $550,000 bonuses)
Brendon Donnelly ($1,350,000 + $1,650,000 bonuses)
D.J. Carrasco ($950,000 + $250,000 bonuses)
Steve Jackson ($425,000)
Chris Jakubauskas ($425,000)

Other possibilities: Neal Cotts ($900,000), Jack Taschner ($835,000 + $465,00 bonuses); Wil Ledezma, Brian Bass, and Brian Burres (undisclosed minor league contracts); Anthony Claggett and Justin Thomas are minimum wage players. Yates and Hansen are also in the mix, but injured and won't be ready for the first part of the season, as is Cotts.

With Donnelly signed to a MLB deal, a guy has to come off the 40-man roster; the suits haven't announced the player yet. And if Carrasco sticks out of spring training, as expected, another will have to go. And if they sign Dotel...

Without Octavio Dotel, the 2010 bullpen's base salary is $4,800,000. If you add $3,000,000 for Dotel and $2,450,000 for met bonuses, it's $10,250,000.

More or less the same money for a better and deeper pen. Maybe Neal Huntington does know what he's doing - sometimes.