Chicago Tribune, November 16, 2004, 11:57 PM CST
The Cubs and Troy Percival could be the perfect fit, which they will get a chance to find out in a face-to-face later this week.
ESPN.com, November 17th, ~3:00 PM CST
The Detroit Tigers have signed Troy Percival to a two-year, $12 million contract, ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark is reporting.
I think Percival’s about ready for a breakdown and wanted the Cubs to skip him, though a two year deal seems about right. What’s more intersting is the belief Ugueth Urbina will be traded as a result; that wouldn’t be a bad setup/closer situation if they kept them, so I wouldn’t be sure until the press confrence.
Assuming Urbina is available, he’s only due to be paid $4mil this year. Percival did have better numbers last year (15.7 VORP to Urbina’s 9.7 in about the same innings), but I don’t believe that’ll be staying the same this upcoming season. Plus, it’s probably more cost efficent to get Urbina than a multi-year deal with Armando Benetiz; throw the extra money into our Carlos Beltran fund.
FWIW, LaTroy had a 25.0 VORP (in a bunch more innings, but still comes out ahead) and Benetiz had 33.1 (in a little bit more innings.)