Jan 7th 2009 6:00AM by Mullet (author feed)
It’s almost as if teams are looking at the calendar and saying “hey, let’s start signing these players before spring training gets here”. The market was almost dead in December, traditionally when the pieces start to fall into place. But now that it’s 2009, the pieces are starting to move a bit. Proof: there are two teams interested in Trevor Hoffman. We found out about the Brewers earlier, but now the Dodgers have entered the fray by offering Hoffman a one year deal.”He’s got three young boys, so he could go home a lot more if he signs with Los Angeles,” Brewers General Manager Doug Melvin told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. “That’s what free agency allows a player to do — pick where it’s best suited for him to play.”

Hoffman made $7.5 million last season with the San Diego Padres, who withdrew a $4-million offer to him in November. The Dodgers’ offer exceeds $4 million.I gotta say I’m a bit surprised that the Dodgers, who have Jonathon Broxton in tow, would go after Hoffman to close games. That being said, Hoffman didn’t have such a bad season considering he played for an awful team. He had a WHIP of 1.04 and only walked nine batters and blown four saves in 45.1 innings. Of course your walks and blown saves will go down if there aren’t any games to pitch or saves to blow.