Friday, February 20, 2009

Orlando Hudson signs with the Dodgers

Not long after I got done writing about the possibility of adding Orlando Cabrera, it was the original Orlando that signed on the dotted line. The Dodgers just announced that Orlando Hudson has signed a 1-year, $3.38 million deal with up to $4.6 million in incentives.

I'm glad I said before that I'd rather have Hudson, because now I feel pretty darn good about this deal. He has a great glove to shore up the middle of the infield with Rafael Furcal. The Dodgers have to be feeling really good about their defense in the infield now.

I've talked plenty about Hudson's OBP, which was at .367 last year. That's the main reason I liked him over Cabrera, because he can move Furcal over or get on base himself. If the Dodgers do get Manny Ramirez back, then a Furcal-Hudson-Manny trio at the top of the order looks really good.

Kudos to the Dodgers for making this happen. But my feeling is that none of it will matter if Manny doesn't come back. Well, it'll matter simply because signing guys like Hudson and Randy Wolf are good decisions regardless if Manny returns. But still, they need him back in order for every piece to fall in place.

Other than Manny, about the only move I can see left is adding another reliever. A couple names I've seen are Denys Reyes and Jason Isringhausen.

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