Former St Louis Cardinals closer Edward Mujica has agreed to a two-year, $9.5 million contract with the Boston Red Sox, according to reports.
Mujica saved 37 games for St Louis in 2013, settling into the closer's role after some early season instability at the position. But Mujica struggled terribly in September and lost his job to Trevor Rosenthal, somehow allowing a .500/.541/.943 line in 7 1/3 September innings. Due to the presence of Koji Uehara, Mujica won't be counted on to get saves in Boston, but he will fit in nicely with a bullpen that suffered at times in 2013 after both Andrew Bailey and Joel Hanrahan suffered season-ending injuries.
The best trait Mujica brings to the table is probably his exceptional control. He's never walked as many as 20 hitters in a season, and last year, he walked just five in 64 2/3 innings to go along with 46 strikeouts. If he can limit the free passes in Boston like he did in St Louis, he'll be just fine.
While I'll repeat my stance from earlier this afternoon and say that multi-year contracts for relievers stink, $9.5 million over two years isn't a huge chunk of change. After all, the Red Sox paid Hanrahan and Bailey a combined $11.14 million last year for a total of 36 innings. I'd rather see contracts like Mujica's if the alternative is the three years that Joe Smith got from the Angels or the absurd salary Brian Wilson got from the Dodgers, but I'm not overly in love with this deal either.
