Koji Uehara Staying Put

Koji Uehara has agreed to return to the Baltimore Orioles on a one year, incentive laden deal for $3 million and the chance to earn up to $2 million more. There is also a vesting option for 2012.

I was critical of The Warehouse for not offering Uehara arbitration since there was reportedly interest from other teams and the Orioles seemed to want him back. However, Andy MacPhail read the situation correctly, gambled and won. Uehara comes back for less than he would have made in arbitration even though there were other teams interested in his services.

As The Oriole Way pointed out, even with the injuries and the shift back to the bullpen, Koji was worth every penny of the $10 million the Orioles just paid him. His stat lines over the past two seasons:

          IP    K   BB   HR   ERA   FIP   W-L   K/BB
Uehara  110.2  103  17   12  3.58  3.10   3-6   6.06

That's pretty damn good and if he does anything along these numbers again, he'll be a fantastic bargain.

And I'm not even including the sideburns.