Transaction Reaction: Heath Bell

The Marlins signed Heath Bell to a 3-Year, $27 million deal. It also contains a vesting option for a fourth year, which would also be at $9 million.

• First off, it's good to see the Marlins actually signing someone, rather than "expressing interest" in everyone.
• Heath Bell has been a very consistent and reliable closer, and it seems they got him for a reasonable price, although the number of years is a bit risky for a closer that is moving from Petco to an unknown new park.
• I personally would not have made this deal because of the extremely high number of quality closers still available in free agency and trade right now. My guess is that teams who decide to wait until near the end of free agency to go closer shopping will be scooping up guys for peanuts. There are only a certain number of closer positions, and none of these pitchers want to end up being the guy who could only land a setup role. This might turn out to be a rare scenario where the teams have all of the leverage over the free agents.