On Wednesday, I wrote about how Felipe Lopez wasn't getting enough attention in comparison to his positional peer, Orlando Hudson. Well, as pretty much everyone knows, yesterday the Twins made an absolutely excellent deal to sign Hudson for $5M over one year.
Now, I'm not going to talk about that signing. Low relative price, consistently solid player, fits absolutely perfectly into their roster's needs. It's your basic good one-year free agent signing.
Rather, I'd like to ask the question: Why the hell does nobody like Felipe Lopez?
A slightly above average defensive second baseman with legitimate offensive upside who's coming off of the second 4.6 WAR season of his career. His reputation doesn't come close to that of Hudson so he has not garnered nearly the same attention.
Now that Hudson has signed for $5M plus incentives (I knew that) on a one-year deal, what is Lopez going to ask for? Something similar to what Xavier Nady signed for (one-year, $3.3M plus incentives)? Because at something slightly less than the bargain price that Hudson signed for, Lopez could very well make Hudson look like an overpayment.