In short, Piecoro suggests the Diamondbacks offer Webb a restructured 2-year deal where Webb makes $6.5 million guaranteed plus incentives the first year, and $3 million guaranteed the second year with incentives (from innings pitched) that could bump it up much higher.

It sounds like a good plan for the Diamondbacks, but there is no way Webb would take this deal if his main criteria is money. If Webb were to hit the free agent market, the immediate comparison that sprung to my mind (as well as Piecoro’s) is John Smoltz, who signed with the Red Sox for $5.5 million after undergoing surgery, much-like Webb. Therefore, Piecoro reasoned that Webb would figure he could not get more than $6.5 million which would equate to his guaranteed salary (because if he isn’t given the option, he gets $2 million regardless). But there is one key point here that went missing: Brandon Webb is way better than John Smoltz. Brandon Webb is only 30 years old! He could easily have three more years of being a top-10 pitcher left in him, no question about it. And teams like the Red Sox and Yankees are the precisely the reason why he could get big money now, even though he is hurt. They would love to pay him $8-9 million guaranteed over three years at least for his services because the dividends could be so great.

So while keeping Webb in Phoenix may seem ideal, the reality is that he will probably shake his head to any sort of extension unless it’s going to include the big bucks. That doesn’t meant the Diamondbacks won’t pick up his option, they may well do that, though if Webb seems set on money, it might be a very risky move that could see him sail away following next season.

Really, the bullpen might have been where Smoltz should have started. But the fact that there isn’t going to be an attempt with the bullpen suggests to me that Smoltz has given up, realizing that his body just wasn’t ready for another season. If he was going to come to this conclusion anyway, he saves the Red Sox a lot of money by doing it now instead of later. As far as I’m concerned, it’s still a shame, I would have loved to see his resurgence in Boston.

In other news, its been reported that Toronto outfielder Alex Rios has been claimed off waivers. At this point the Jays can pull him back and have nothing happen, let him go to the team, or try to work out a deal. As far as I’m concerned, the Jays should let him go. Obviously it would have been better if they had traded Halladay but the Jays have got to recognize that there signing of Wells and Rios were not great ideas. Rios is a good player, but he’s not a star and not someone you build a franchise around.

Rios is $9.7M in 2010, $12M for the two years after that, and $12.5M for the two years after that. That’s a lot of years of question marks, and I could easily see them trading him a few years down the road and swallowing a lot of salary. They’re not going to be able to compete next year even with him, and they should let him go.

No word yet on which team has claimed him, but I’ll keep updates coming when word comes in.

7:57 p.m. According to MLBTradeRumors, the Mets, Red Sox and Giants did not claim Rios, looks like this could be a process of elimination game.

Update: ESPN’s Buster Olney says the White Sox are most likely the team who have claimed Rios, though this is unconfirmed.