There's a growing meme about Z's inability to judge free agent talent. I'd thought I'd try to shed some light on the subject.
Jack Zduriencik's Free Agent Signings - limited to Major League deals given to players outside the organization.
2009
Russell Branyan:1yr, $1.4M = 1.8 WAR Ken Griffey, JR: 1yr, $2M = -0.3 WAR
2010
Chone Figgins: 4yr, $36M = 1.1 WAR (10) -0.5 WAR (11), TBD, TBDEric Byrnes: 1yr, $0.4M = -0.5 WARRyan Garko: 1yr, $0.55M = released before the season
2011
Jack Cust: 1yr, $2.5M = 0.1 WARMiguel Olivo: 2yr, $7M = 0.2 WAR (11), TBDBrendan Ryan: 2yr, $2.75M = 2.8 WAR (11), TBD
2012
George Sherril: 1yr, $1.2 = TBD
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And that's what I found. Everyone else was either signed to a minor league deal or acquired via trade. Did I miss someone?
So, first off, that ain't a team that's trying to BUY anything.
Second, hit and miss. Branyan certainly worked out, though his reacquisition for Juan Diaz and Zeke Carrera was probably misguided. KGjr (a reacquisition) certainly energized the team and the fan base in 2009, but his resigning was probably a mistake. Chone's been an unmitigated disaster. Byrnes will remain infamous for his bicycling in and out of the clubhouse. Garko was out spring'd by Mike Sweeney (twice signed on minor league deals). Jack Cust didn't work out so well. Miguel Olivo (a reacquisition), while underperforming in the WAR was certainly better than his replacement options, wait.. what? WAR is dumb. Brendan Ryan is a stud.
Combined total: 3 multi year deals to free agents in 3 seasons as a GM. 1 failure that was deemed reasonable at the time in Figgins, 2 that remain yet to be determined but appear promising (Ryan) and disappointing (Olivo).
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That's certainly not large enough of a sample size, nor is it sufficiently horrible enough to justify the meme in my opinion.
- Ben.
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