Thin in the Pen? You'll have to SPEND.

This offseason in Major League Baseball we've seen several multi-year contracts signed by middle relievers.  Joaquin Benoit signed with the Detroit Tigers for 3 years for $16.5 million earlier this offseason and that set the bar for other relievers to find perhaps more lucrative deals with teams that have more money to spend than the Tampa Bay Rays did on Benoit.

While pitchers like Benoit and lefty Scott Downs already had their payday, others are still looking for jobs, and might be of great help to a contending team if they are willing to spend a little extra dough.

Anyone who knows baseball will tell you that pitching and defense wins championships, and that having a strong bullpen is a big part of that.  Teams for the most part have decided to spend their money on offense and starting pitching and hope to fill the bullpen with more cost-effective players.

Most experts agree that the bullpen is not a fixed element and that pens like the Giants for example, will not maintain the high level of efficiency that they had in 2010 for every season.  Some teams like to fill their bullpen with young guys from within the organization.  This can be successful decision, as it was for the Atlanta Braves in 2010 with Mike Dunn and Jonny Venters, but they can't hope to have the same kind of consistency from these guys each year.

There are plenty of good relief options still on the market, including Rafael Soriano, Octavio Dotel, Brian Fuentes, and Kevin Gregg.  All are most likely seeking multi-year deals because their numbers are comparable to others who signed contracts of that nature.  There will be some teams when this offseason comes to close that will have missed out on top-of-the-line starting pitching and offense.  They need to spend their money elsewhere and beef up their relief corps with some big names.

For teams like the Phillies, who have the luxury of having starters who can go deep into games, they don't need to spend as much money on signing these big name relievers.  While they still need some help in their bullpen, they can afford to rely on some younger guys from their minor league system to carry the middle-relief workload.  They should be able to feed off of the positive energy of a team full of veterans who know how to win.

For those other teams who think they need some big time help in their pen, it's time to fetch your wallets.