There's little question that two guaranteed years for a 36-year old utility man with a .267/.317/.361 career slash line is excessive. But it's also almost completely harmless. The Cairo signing is not Willy Taveras, Part Deux. Cairo will be getting $2M, spread over two seasons, to play off the bench - a role he filled admirably last year. Cairo's.290/.353/.410 line (good for almost 1.0 FanGraphs WAR) in 226 PAs last season has all the appearance of an aberrant, career peak kind of season, in part because of a BABIP almost 30 points above his career average.

Unsurprisingly, Bill James projects Cairo to snap right back to his career line, with a speculative .675 OPS in 2010. If Cairo marginally outperforms James' outlook - and last season is reason to think he can - he'll be a slightly-overpaid bench player, with slightly more job security than other players in his class.

Cairo can back-up at all four infield positions and serve as an emergency outfielder. For a superutility player, his defense seems acceptable. FanGraphs has him in the positive in fielding runs from 2006-2009. And while he was slightly negative last year, my naked eye - while indecently exposed - judged him to be acceptable (for a reserve) everywhere but in the outfield. And at DH - dude didn't even bother to take the field. Lazy.

This move is a head-scratcher, but only for a brief moment before you go back to the texting.