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Francisco Rodriguez, Milwaukee Brewers Agree On One Year Awkward-Set-Up-Man Extension

In a surprise move Tuesday, Francisco Rodriguez and the Milwaukee Brewers agreed to continue Rodriguez's extremely strained clubhouse interaction with closer John Axford for another year, signing K-Rod—who has 291 career saves—to a one-year deal worth $8 million. The deal comes in lieu of arbitration, and—weirdly enough—involves a bunch of incentives triggered when he finishes games.

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I'm not sure where the Brewers are going with this—they say they don't plan on trading him—but if I'm Axford, I'm at least a little worried about the million-dollar incentive Rodriguez has to shred my elbow ligament in the night.

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Rodriguez, who's just a year older than Axford, remains—for all this set-up man derailment and decreased effectiveness—on an unprecedented pace for saves; entering his age-30 season he's 41 ahead of Rod Beck, who accrued 250 saves between 1991 and 1998 before ending his career with 286.

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(In case you were wondering: Mariano Rivera had 129, Trevor Hoffman had 135, and Lee Smith had 180. These things have a way of evening out.)