Posted By Jeff Fletcher on July 23, 2010 6:15 pm

I’ve got all the details on Kurt Suzuki’s new deal in my short story at FanHouse. I wrote it before talking to Suzuki, Bob Geren and Billy Beane, so none of their comments are in there.

I’ll give you the highlights here. Suzuki is very happy. The A’s are happy.

There.

Seriously, the most interesting thing out of all this to me was that Beane said he thinks Suzuki has a chance to be a guy who hits 20-plus homers a year. I know it’s not a big stretch, since he’s on pace for about 17 or 18 this year, but still. Beane also said that he thinks Suzuki is the second- or third-best catcher in the AL. Joe Mauer is obviously No. 1, and Beane said that Jorge Posada still deserves some consideration, too.

Whenever a deal like this is signed, people go a little crazy talking about how it makes for stability and shows that the team wants to keep a player around for the long-term. I always find that amusing, because the player was going to be under control anyway. All this does is set his salary so they don’t have to go to arbitration. It could be a good deal for the team if the player becomes a star (Adrian Gonzalez), or it could be a deal for the player if he gets hurt or doesn’t meet expectations (Bobby Crosby). It doesn’t really change the likelihood of the player staying around, though.