Reds Extend Freel through 2009
By
Amanda
Posted at 2:24 pm
From Reds.com:
CINCINNATI -- The Reds and infielder-outfielder Ryan Freel agreed Monday to terms on a two-year contract extension through the 2009 season.
The 31-year-old Freel, who stole 110 bases in his first three full seasons with the Reds and already has four stolen bases this season, was on the second year of a two-year deal he signed prior to last season.
I'll have to update later with numbers once I see them. C. Trent has equally limited information, but I bet he'll have an update soon.
Of course, there aren't going to be many people who are against this. I mean, Freel's a great, exciting player with an obviously positive impact on the team's performance.
I do wonder why now, though. General Manager Wayne Krivsky definitely has a penchant for extending contracts way earlier than they need to be, so maybe it's nothing. On the other hand, with the number of bloggers and podcasters for other teams that have expressed their desire to see Freel on their own team, I have to wonder.
UPDATE 7:22 p.m. -- Freel's getting $3 million in 2008 and $4 million in 2009. Check out C. Trent's comments on the matter. There are some quotes from Freel. There's also some totally rambling and irrelevant stuff about Rob Butcher, which I assume is an effort to give the PR man some good PR man himself after he didn't represent himself so well in a conversation with me.
Freel is not going anywhere… and as for the reason on the timing,… this type of signing is a motivating move by management to show they are loyal to players who play hard every day every play… this team is no longer a waystation for players, this is a place to hang your hat and play your career here.
Good move, either way. If they do end up trading him, he’ll be worth more with a longer contract.
I don’t think you motivate players with a signing after the 12th game. If this were the 25th game, I might buy it.
Unless they’re signing Freel specifically not to sign Encarnación.
If you follow the link to ctr’s blog that RHM posted and scroll down to where Ryan Freel is talking about moving aside for Hamilton, that’s just an excellent quote there of Freel talking about Hamilton, and himself. If you’re not a Ryan Freel fan already, you might be after reading this stuff.
I bet they are selling a ton of tickets to the Ryan Freel dirty shirt nights and have become aware (if they weren’t already) that Freel is a fan favorite that puts butts in the seats. Its a no-brain investment by management. It has nothing to do with the rest of the roster you can pencil Freel somewhere nearly every night.
Yep. He’s at 3B tonight. Hamilton’s starting in CF and EE has the night off.
Gonzalez is back too, they DFA’ed Cruz. Gotta find another porn star to joke around about.
HMZ
I have a feeling Cruz will clear waivers. That’s why they picked him, and not Bellhorn or someone like that.
I think we’ll have the gay porn star to kick around awhile longer 😉
Anyone still harboring doubt about whether Freel is worth every penny of his new contract must’ve missed Tuesday’s game against the Brewers.
Freel leads off the bottom of the fifth with what should have been a single to center. Because it’s Freel running, Hall is all worried about him going to second. So instead of keeping his eyes on the ball like he should, Hall looks up to see what Freel’s doing – and loses the handle on it, allowing Freel to go to second. It’s scored as a double but could easily have been scored a single and an error on Hall.
With no shot at a DP now, they elect to walk Hamilton on purpose. While they’re doing that, Bush uncorks a high pitch. Estrada should be watching the ball trying to catch it. Where’s he looking instead? Yep, right at Freel. The ball pops out and he gets to keep looking at Freel while Ryan runs to third. It’s scored as a WP (Wild Pitch), mainly because there’s no provision in the rule book for scoring it as a FIBB (Fielder Intimidated By Baserunner). If there was, it would have been Freel’s second FIBB of the night.
After they finish walking Hamilton, Dunn pops one up in short center. Cool Hand Luke intervenes: The Brewers, perhaps worried about Freel trying to tag up and score on the play, have a fayah to communicate. It bounces between Hall (who else?) and Hardy. Freel scores, and the game is tied.
Fast-forward to the seventh. Who ignites the Reds’ explosion with a leadoff single off Villanueva? Freel, who later scores the first run of the inning as the Reds erase a 5-4 Brewers lead with a five-run inning, aided by yet another fielding miscue by Hall – whose attempt to follow in the footsteps of the great Robin Yount by moving from SS to CF doesn’t look like it’s going very well. I guess Hall used up too much good karma on his grand slam Monday night and things are starting to even out for him now.
So the first time this year that Freel’s played in the infield instead of the outfield, he’s so upset by the position change that he’s only able to manage 4-for-5 with three runs scored, and RBI, and two or three FIBBs. This lets Hamilton start in center. Josh goes 2-for-4 with a walk and scores twice. That’s six runs produced between the two of them, on a night where the opposing team only scored five.
You have to figure Kriv-Dawg saved the Reds a fortune on Monday by signing him to that two-year extension. Freel would have been eligible for arbitration both years.
HMZ