I have just a quick follow up to yesterday's article before we move onto player news. Commissioner Selig announced that contraction will be officially postponed until next season. All this announcement actually means is that there will be 30 teams playing in 2002. However, though he will certainly continue to pursue the action, Selig's forfeit now does decrease the likelihood of contraction at any point in the future.

For now I think it is important for arbiter Shyam Das to continue to hear the remainder of the arguments and rule regarding the players' grievance relating to contraction. That ruling has bearing on any future discussions of contraction, and given that Selig has been clear that this is not the end of contraction, there is no reason to postpone the matter until next year.

As to whether or not I believe we will actually see contraction, I don't. Even if you move past the legal entanglement surrounding the issue, you still have the problem that although there might be one acceptable candidate, there certainly aren't two. There are plenty of players to go around and plenty of markets. For one reason or anther, baseball is not succeeding in Montreal, but there are multiple markets to which the franchise can be moved and relocation makes much more sense than contraction.

The only reason to even consider contraction over relocation is the potential infusion of cash when MLB subsequently expands in a few years. That one reason is heavily outweighed by the huge legal and public relation problems that contracting any club other than Montreal is going to cause. Even with Montreal you have problems with the union and the loss of jobs.

If this plan had been well thought out ahead of time, Selig could have saved a couple years and probably more than a couple million dollars. As it stands, I hope that by next off-season, he's had time to think it over, they sell the Expos to the group in Washington, D.C., and then attempt to affect change through intelligent personnel decisions in the front offices. What I expect to happen is that Selig will continue to pursue contraction in the coming off-season, fail to find a second club to contract and be forced to shelve the concept indefinitely, contenting himself with revenue sharing plans that only address surface issues without repairing the problems at the core.

Putting those issues aside for the moment, I would like to return to player commentary. Troy Percival agreed to a two-year, $16M contract extension with the Angels on Tuesday. Although the two-sides had reached an impasse earlier in the off-season in terms of Percival's future with the club, Anaheim had already picked up his $5.25M option for this season, so the contract will be paying him $8M in each of 2003 and 2004.

Despite a past history of injury troubles, last season Percival only suffered some brief back problems and had one of his best seasons ever. As long as he continues to pitch at that level through the length of the contract, he should be one of the top closers in baseball while earning his salary. The Angels were smart not to lock him up for more than three years right now but probably negotiated fair value. The California-born pitcher's contract includes a clause that prevents Anaheim from trading him to any of the New York or Canadian teams.

Colorado also signed their closer on Tuesday. Jose Jimenez agreed to a one-year, $1,937,500 contract with the Rockies. Considering he likely isn't even their best closing option after their off-season moves, this seems a bit pricey. Pitching in Colorado is never a picnic, but Jimenez hasn't ever awed crowds with his dominance. If he can avoid racking up ugly numbers in the first half, the Rockies should certainly test his trade value around the deadline.

I'll catch up on the rest of the recent contracts tomorrow, as I want to cover a few other news items before we wrap up today.

While we discussed the Texas Rangers signing of Juan Gonzalez when the two sides agreed to basic terms in early January, the completed deal was not officially announced by the Rangers until this Tuesday. The completion of the contract took almost a month because Gonzalez had to undergo a physical and the two sides needed to work out some of the language of the contract, but all loose ends should now be tied up.

The last tidbit of news we have today is that Bobby Abreu had an emergency appendectomy last weekend while in Venezuela. Based upon doctors' recommendations, Abreu and the Phillies have decided that he should stay in Venezuela until the incision can heal. He may be late for Spring Training but should be recovered in time for the start of the season.

Although Abreu had his surgery in Venezuela and Adrian Beltre underwent his procedure in the Dominican, Beltre's agonizing anecdote is hard not to recall when reading of Abreu's surgery. As Beltre's problems arose from a hole punched in his bowels during the operation, there is no reason to believe Abreu would have that kind of complication. However, I'm certain the Phillies would be much more comfortable if the procedure had taken place in the US and not abroad.