A sentence from Buster Olney’s column this morning stuck out like a glowing, radioactive thumb:
The Royals fully expect to open next season with Joakim Soria as their closer -- which makes sense, because to offer up Soria now would be to try to extract value in the middle of a buyers’ market for relievers. There are many, many alternatives available.
I know there are a lot of relievers available, but in a world when Jonathan Papelbon and Heath Bell are landing a combined $77 million -- at a minimum -- it’s hard for me to fathom what things would look like if it was a seller’s market.
There’s an obvious supply/demand mismatch going on here. Olney is right that there are a lot of relievers floating around, but man, they are raking it in. If I was the Royals I’d see what crazy-sauce-drinking GM would be willing to offer me for Soria.
