Baseball News - Benitez Signs with Giants



San Francisco signed free agent closer Armando Benitez to a three-year deal worth about $21 million on Tuesday.

Benitez gets salaries of $2.5 million in 2005, $4 million in 2006 and $7.6 million in 2007 along with a $7.4 million signing bonus.

San Francisco believes that Benitez will end the closer mishap that has been going on since Robb Nen was injured two years ago. Since Nen was sidelined with a serious shoulder injury following the 2002 World Series, the Giants have not had a "true closer". Tim Worrell closed in 2003 before leaving for the Phillies as a free agent and last year, the Giants' bullpen struggled in late innings.

"He's the prototype of a closer and will be a dominant force at the end of the game," said Giants vice president and general manager Brian Sabean. "This developed more rapidly than we thought and put [the deal] on fast forward. We decided to move and strike fast."

Benitez bounced back from a subpar 2003 season to save an NL-leading 47 games in 51 chances and lead major league relievers with a 1.29 ERA for the Florida Marlins this year.

The Dominican closer throws a high-90s fastball, a hard slider and nasty splitter, and held opponents to a .216 average last season. Benitez is an intimidating presence on the mound and overpowers hitters (struck out 826 batters in 654 innings).

Benitez ranks ninth among active pitchers with 244 lifetime saves, while is fourth with a 86.2 percent success ratio (244-for-283) in saves.

"This is a guy whose name has been everywhere -- I'm excited," said Manager Felipe Alou. "We made a major change in the middle of the season last year. Our guys did a tremendous job, but it's great to have a guy who has been very successful and is an intimidating closer."




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