Ben Sheets has signed a 1 year, $8M+ deal with the Oakland A’s, according to CBSsports.

Update (Scott): The deal makes a lot of sense for both sides – The A’s, a likely 4th place team (though closing the gap) this year, land Sheets presumably to flip him at the deadline for prospects if they’re out of the race. Sheets moves to California for 4 months, re-establishes value, then gets traded to a contender down the stretch, maximizing his 2011 free agent value.

It’s slightly upsetting that the Mariners were unable to land Sheets, but $8 million guaranteed is a large risk for a pitcher with such an extensive injury history, let alone the one that caused him to miss an entire year. Look for the M’s to explore the trade market for another pitcher with Sheets out of the running.

Update (Jon): Jon Heyman tweets that the deal guarantees Sheets $10M plus performance bonuses.

As I wrote a few posts back, you can talk yourself into paying him that much but at that high a guaranteed salary you have to be very nervous.  I would have liked him at $6M, which is where one recent report pegged his asking price, and Graham at Lookout Landing recently wrote that Sheets was worth about $5.25M guaranteed.

That he gets $10M from Oakland suggest that they outbid the competition, which isn’t all that surprising.  Oakland, despite being perceived as a non-player in free agency, had some money to spend this offseason and struck out on several big targets.  Oakland hasn’t had a great team in recent years and doesn’t exactly have the greatest facilities in baseball, so they probably had to overpay a bit to get him.  Billy Beane isn’t exactly Omar Minaya here.  He feels like he needs a guy of Sheets’ caliber to stay up with the rest of the AL West, and until Sheets breaks down you’ve got to think the A’s will be right in it.  The AL West is going to be ridiculously competitive in 2010.  The division could go in any order.

That’s a lot of money to give him and I don’t blame GM Jack Zduriencik and the Mariners for passing.  I have to imagine that the A’s will be quick on the trigger to move him at midseason if he’s made it that far without breaking down, even if they’re not that far out of it.  It will be interesting to see what they do if they’re on top of the west or only a couple games back.