Jared Burton signs, avoids arbitration

The Reds signed reliever Jared Burton to a one-year deal, terms undisclosed. They also signed some other guy. Signing Burton means that the parties avoid arbitration, although I can’t imagine Burton would’ve fared too well in that hearing. He’s been jerked around a bit the last couple years, partly due to injuries, partly due to unknown factors that caused Dusty Baker and Walt Jocketty to prefer inferior pitchers over Burton, for whatever reason (Carlos Fisher, anyone?) I don’t know what the issue has been with Burton and Reds management, but let’s hope it’s all behind them and Jared can go back to being a dominant right-handed relief pitcher. Admittedly, I’m higher on Burton than most, but his cutter has been among the best in the game, and it looked pretty good last year. I’m looking forward to a healthy season from this guy.