Busy, Busy Day

Five more acquisitions today:

• Rays officially sign Cliff Floyd (1 year / 3 million with 2 million in possible incentives)
  
• Jays sign David Eckstein (1 year / 4.5 million)
  
• Twins sign Adam Everett (1 year / 2.8 million)
  
• Nationals sign Rob Mackowiak and Willie Harris (both one year deals)

Beginning from the top; the Rays get their left-handed batting outfielder in Floyd, he's a bit older - 35 since last week - but he'll make a nice platoon mate with Jonny Gomes and Rocco Baldelli between right field and the designated hitter spot. I imagine Joe Maddon and company plan on having him stay off of the field turf as much as possible to save whatever is left of his heel, but I agree with Will Carroll who in today's Baseball Prospectus chat mentioned it's a smart move - namely combining an injury prone player with one of the better training staffs in the league, lead by Ron Porterfield who probably doesn't get enough attention for his job well done - Rocco Baldelli excluded.

It wasn't too long ago that J.P. Riccardi signed the best defensive shortstop in the league, John McDonald, to a deal giving him 2.5 million annually despite McDonald's .612 OPS and .579 OPS in 2006. Well today he added another shortstop to the mix; however defense isn't the strong suite for the smallest giant in the game - David Eckstein - and his career .713 OPS doesn't exactly scream upgrade, but I guess 4.5 million for a year of - at the worst - a decent back-up infielder isn't too bad, however paying 7 million for two league average infielders when only one will play probably isn't the smartest thing.

The Twins dealt their defensive shortstop, Jason Bartlett, to the Rays not too long ago, so adding the best defensive shortstop in the game for the past few years (per The Fielding Bible) makes sense. He's not good with the bat, but that's never been an issue for Twins' middle infielders anyways, however he's a much better option to start in the six hole than Brendan Harris.

And finally, I'll ask again: why in the name of Peter Bergeron do the Nationals need more outfielders? Both of their acquisitions today can play beyond the dirt, although I suppose both could foreseeable play the infield, but Jim Bowden is really loading up on position players - 20 of the players on his 40 man roster, not including catchers, are either infielders or outfielders - and this off-season alone they've added Elijah Dukes, Garrett Guzman, Lastings Milledge, Matt Whitney, Aaron Boone, and now Harris along with Mackowiak. I'd suggest Ryan Langerhans days in the Capital are nearly done, but after that you've got a ton of toolsy outfielders, I'm not exactly sure what the plan will be from there, but perhaps if they get decent years from two of the outfielders they can parlay them into a package for a valuable piece later on? Assuming that the piece isn't another young outfielder.