Good for the C's and good for Daniels. Makes this a very low-risk signing for us; if he doesn't work out, he's a trade chip at the deadline. Be nice to have him locked up at what ought to be a below-market salary for longer, but that's OK. All that matters right now is 2010.
Daniels doesn't get locked into a long-term deal at such a low salary; if he's a key bench guy for us and puts up comparable numbers to what he did last year (with a lot more publicity), he could potentially command a decent-sized chunk of someone's MLE next summer.
I'm assuming the fact that this is only a one-year deal doesn't change the fact that we won't have the LLE available next summer, right? Is that exemption every-other-year, regardless of contract length?