Just answering the question in the headline, in case you're busy or just not particularly curious: Probably, and probably.
First, about the money ... Huston Street's new contract is actually a good story. From Mike DiGiovanna:
When Street arrived at spring training and was acting as his own agent, he said he wanted a deal between what closer David Robertson got from the Chicago White Sox (four years, $46 million) and setup man Andrew Miller got from the New York Yankees (four years, $36 million) last winter.
Well, he wound up getting two years and $18 million or (if Angels exercise their option) three years and $27 million. Which isn't between Robertson and Miller at all. It's significantly fewer years and dollars than Robertson and Miller got, and significantly fewer dollars per year than Robertson.
So why did Street sign the contract?
"You can't let your ego get involved," Street said. "You have to make decisions based on reality and what you really want. If all you want is money, that's one thing. But I put a lot of value on a lot of other things. First and foremost is the happiness of my family.
"Second is my loyalty to winning. I love my teammates, but this is a talent league, and I told them if I didn't think they were worth a hill of beans, I wouldn't have signed this contract. … I was closing for the team I want to close for. So the allure of free agency wasn't as exciting to me."
Which is refreshing, right? Players love to say It's not about the money, but it's hard to take them seriously unless they take less money.
And when they do, we tend to be pleased with them. For our own fuzzy reasons.
Then here comes MGL, throwing a spanner into the works...
Granted, we don't know what he means by "a ton" here. So instead let's just try to get a handle on where Street ranks among relievers...
First glance? Not all that good. Looking at 2012 through Thursday's games is a pretty nice sample. Street's pitched about 160 innings over that span. Among the 105 relievers who have thrown at least 150 innings, Street ranks 45th in fWAR, 42nd in FIP, and 69th in xFIP.
So where does Street fare well? He's third in BABiP allowed (.225) and (in related news) seventh in ERA (2.07).
Now, you can read into those numbers whatever you like, and what you like probably depends on your particular perspective; MGL's is different from Mike Scioscia's.
Do you believe that Huston Street is fundamentally better than his pitching-independent numbers? At this point in the history of baseball analysis, I'm afraid the burden of proof lies with you, not MGL.
So is Street worth $9 million per season on paper?
Nope. It's close, thought. Because Street didn't pitch particularly well in 2013, a reasonable projection would show him worth around $8 million this season, give or take. But what MGL would argue, I think, is that looking at WAR/$$$ ratio in this case is somewhat nonsensical, since relievers are so fungible and it's so easy to find a good relief pitcher for much, much less than the theoretical market rate for a Win Above Replacement.
What that does leave out, though, is peace of mind. You know Mike Scioscia loves having a Proven Closer™ in his bullpen, just as Linus loves his blanket. I don't know how to attach dollars to Scioscia's peace of mind, but it does have value. There's probably some value, too, in signing a player who so clearly is happy to be where he is, even for a touch less money than he might otherwise have gotten.
But in a world where the Angels are paying Josh Hamilton a billion dollars to play for the Rangers, throwing a few sheckels Huston Street's way doesn't figure to bust the budget. And in a world where the closer so often comes in to protect two- or three-run leads, there's only so much damage Huston Street can do.
If he keeps pitching reasonably well. If he stops pitching reasonably well -- granted, a distinct possibility considering some of those numbers above -- and Scioscia keeps using him because of the contract?
Well, then it's a bad contract and I will stop defending it.
