Dodgers sign Matt Guerrier to 3-year deal

Updated 1:28 p.m.

And the hits keep on comin'.

The Dodgers inexplicably signed former Minnesota Twins' reliever Matt Guerrier to a 3-year deal, $12 million deal today, as reported by Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports.

On the surface, Guerrier looks like a decent pickup. Then you factor in his age (32), the number of games pitched (most in baseball after Pedro Feliciano) and his low K/9 rate (5.9 for his career) and it isn't a great deal.

New stuff: And most of all, the contract. Why on God's green earth is Guerrier getting a 3-year deal? It's not like right-handed middle relievers are rare. This just makes no sense.

Ned Colletti strikes again. There is absolutely no need to dump $4 million a year (though I'm sure some will be deferred) on a middle reliever. Guerrier has a nice ERA for his career (3.38), but his peripherals are not great.

The only good thing is Guerrier has been better the past two seasons than he has his entire career. He has a 2.75 ERA, 1.03 WHIP, 7.0 H/9, 2.3 BB/9 and 2.34 BB/9 in his last two seasons. However, his K/9 is less-than ideal (5.4).

And if you're a fan of sabermetics, FanGraphs says his numbers are likely to be worse in L.A.

Then again, he has averaged 76 innings pitched per season since 2005, so it wouldn't shock me one bit to see him end up on the disabled list during his tenure as a Dodger.

If Guerrier was brought in on a 1-year deal, this would be easier to take. But he's here for three years and probably will not live up to the $4 million a season he'll average annually.

As of now, the bullpen looks like this:

• Vicente Padilla
  
• Blake Hawksworth
• Matt Guerrier
• Kenley Jansen
• Hong-Chih Kuo
• Jonathan Broxton

That leaves probably one spot; preferably for a lefty. With the way Scott Elbert pitched in the Arizona Fall League, he should have a great look at the last spot in the bullpen. That would leave 2009 standout Ronald Belisario out of a job. And what to do with Ramon Troncoso? I think he still has options, so it isn't out of the realm of possibility that he starts the season in Triple-A.

Guerrier joins the list of terrible signings by Colletti:

Juan Uribe - $5 million
Rod Barajas - $3.25 million
Dioner Navarro - $1 million

You're telling me with $13.25 million, the Dodgers could not have signed or traded for an impact player? Because none of the guys above are impact players.

Colletti gets money to try to improve the team and he goes and makes it potentially worse than 2010. OK, maybe not worse, but the team isn't significantly better right now than it was in 2010.

Granted, there would be other holes to fill, but finding patchwork pieces is a lot easier than landing an impact player. It just isn't a good allocation of the team's limited resources.

The signings of Hiroki Kuroda, Jon Garland and Vicente Padilla were nice signings. Ted Lilly's deal is looking a little worse than it did at first, but it's acceptable. Every other signing was a joke and there were cheaper alternatives available.

I never knew someone could be so incompetent -- and this is the same guy who signed Juan Pierre for five years and an injured Jason Schmidt for three years.

Ownership cannot change fast enough. I don't care who ends up owning the Dodgers (for the most part) as long as he or she gives Colletti his walking papers.

Until then, we're stuck with these medial moves by one Mr. Colletti.

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Former Dodger catcher Russell Martin passed his physical and finalized his 1-year, $4 million contract with the New York Yankees today.

He signed for $200,000 less than the Dodgers offered in guaranteed money.

Looks like he underestimated the market and the interest in him.

Oh well. I still wish Martin well. He was once my favorite Dodger, as I'm partial to catchers. Perhaps I'll have to do another installment of "What could have been," featuring Martin.