What Brad Penny and Carl Pavano Mean for the Starting Pitchers' Market

Yesterday, Carl Pavano accepted arbitration from the Twins. Pavano, who went 14-12 with a 5.10 ERA last season, is expected to make somewhere in the $7 million dollar neighborhood next season, thanks to arbitration. Also, it looks like the two sides will try to work out a multi year pact first.

After Pavano made $4.35 million last season, arbitration could boost his 2010 salary into the $7 million range.

At one point in his career, Carl Pavano was one of the most coveted pitchers on the free agent market. Now, I'd be hard pressed to say that Pavano is anything more than a fourth starter at this point.

In addition, the Cardinals signed Brad Penny yesterday to a 1 year/$7.5 million dollar contract. Penny was 11-9 last season with a 4.88 ERA with the Red Sox and Giants. Penny was miserable during his tenure with the Red Sox, but he really turned it around with the Giants by posting a 2.59 ERA in his six starts with the club.

Penny's one-year contract is worth $7.5 million and contains $1.5 million in performance bonuses, according to sources. The deal is pending a physical, which will likely be done on Tuesday.

At one point in his career, Brad Penny started the all star game and was one of the top pitchers in the NL, but right now, it'd be difficult to say that Penny is anything more than a middle of the rotation starter until he proves that he can be the dominant starting pitcher that we all saw during his tenure with the Dodgers. Then again, I love the idea of pairing Penny with pitching coach Dave Duncan

If the 2009 versions of Brad Penny and Carl Pavano are worth around $7 million dollars, then I'd love to be Jason Marquis, Joel Pineiro, or Randy Wolf right now. There's no way any of those guys should get less than $7 million on the market even if they don't get the desired number of years.

No matter how poor the rest of the market is, the market for quality starting pitchers has not suffered and I believe there are still many lucrative contracts to be had aside from John Lackey.