Lock It Up! Make It Count!

In just 3 days, the Rangers have managed to take care of 2 of their 3 pending arbitration cases. They’ve done this by signing both Elvis Andrus and Nelson Cruz to multi-year deals.

It makes sense, for both the players and the team.

• Elvis signs a 3-year, $14.4MM contract

The Rangers bought out Andrus’ remaining years of arbitration. If he continues to improve at the rate that he has, $14MM is about what he should be making. The thing that I like about the deal is that, if he has a breakout season at the plate in 2012 or 2013, the Rangers will be paying him less than he would get year-to-year.

If Andrus’ skill-set improves more naturally, he will still be paid fairly.

• Cruz signs a 2-year, $16MM contract

This afternoon Cruz wrote on his Facebook wall “Happy to be a Ranger for 2 more years! Feliz por pertenecer a los Rangers por dos temporadas mas!”*

*I can only assume that the 2nd half of that is a personal message for Neftali Feliz…or something.

Cruz and his boomstick will average $8MM per season for the next two years. This is another good deal for the Rangers. It might be for a little more money than you’d like, but it’s still very team friendly. After all, what are the chances that Cruz would get anything less than $10MM/yr if he were on the open market?

Both players are going to be with the team beyond 2012, so locking them up is what’s best for everyone. Arbitration cases should be avoided and the Rangers haven’t been to one since the year 20o0. Hopefully they can come to terms with Mike Napoli, though it may not be easy.

Press on, Rangers fans.

(Leave a comment or find me on Twitter @BleacherSeatsTX. Thanks to Baseball Reference for their invaluable resources.)