The Athletics agreed to a two-year $5.25MM deal with reliever Michael Wuertz. Wuertz will get $2.2MM in 2010, $2.8MM in 2011 and either $250K or $3.5MM in 2012, depending on whether the A's pick up their club option. The 31-year-old righty had filed for $2.9MM in arbitration, while the club submitted $1.9MM. He was the team's last remaining arbitration eligible player.
Wuertz posted a 2.63 ERA in 78.2 innings last season, as batters made contact on just 58.9% of the swings they took against him. As you can imagine, that was far and away the best rate in baseball.
Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle and the AP added details after MLB.com's Jane Lee first tweeted the agreement.
Ben Nicholson-Smith contributed to this post.
This guy had the best season for a non-closer relief pitcher last year. One of the reasons why the A’s had such a good bullpen.
A’s might trade away some bullpen depth
Bailey
Wuertz
Ziegler
Devine (if healthy)
Breslow
Kilby/Blevins/Meloan/Hrod/Demel in AAA
5.25 mil for Wuertz? How many wins is he over replacement level? This is a bad signing by the A’s.
GJ by Wuertz I guess. He got a pretty sweet 1-year deal in a bad economy.
Cubs signed grabow for 2 yr/7.25 mill LOL
Whoops, 2-yr deal. I guess that’s pretty bad.
Yeah, that signing was pretty idiotic. Almost as idiotic as your comment.
ah, meant pretty good*
wuertz was an elite reliever in 09
In 2009, Wuertz went 6-1 with four saves and a 2.63 ERA in a team-leading 74 appearances. He led AL relievers with 102 strikeouts in 78 2-3 innings.
I ownder what happened to robnett and sellers who cubs got in that deal
Neither guy stuck with the Cubs.
5.25M is worth less than two wins on the open market. Wuertz was worth 2.4 WAR last year.
He’s had one season where he was worth over 1.3 WAR, and that was last season. His past three seasons before that he was worth 0.4 WAR. Banking on Wuertz replicating last year isn’t a good idea.
The argument is moot regardless; I had thought that it was a 1 year deal worth 5.25. Spread over two years, that’s a pretty good deal for the A’s.
Looking at past seasons isn’t as indicative as what a pitcher will do in the future compared to what peripherals will tell you, and his are pretty damn good. He probably won’t repeat last year but even if he regresses a significant amount, he should still post a 1.5 WAR, well worth the contract.
I don’t think expecting a 1.7-1.9 WAR out of Wuertz next season though is that unrealistic at all.
You’re a victim of your own prognosis. What’s more likely:
That 73 IP of great baseball is Wuertz true value, or 231.7 of mediocre baseball is his value?
I’m not saying he’ll regress all the way down to his 0.5-0.7 seasons (probably around 1.2-1.5), but he sure as hell isn’t going to post 2.4 again. I guess the faults about projections is that they’re just opinionated stats — we’ll see what happens to him in 2010. As I’ll say again, the deal is pretty good for the A’s.
But his stats indicate that the 73 IP is more reliable than the other 231 mediocre innings, because frankly his stats did indicate that an explosion like this year were that impossible at all, if not expected.
That doesn’t make sense. Ttyl
No, now you’re just ignoring what the better stats say because they prove you wrong.
it was 2 yr/5.25
Actually, believe it or not, he was 2.4 WAR last season.
That’s about 10 mil at 4 mil per win.
This is about 2.625 mil per season and he’s been worth at least that for 3 of his last 5 seasons.
Clearly, his last year was heavily factored in the deal.
The A’s might get a fair deal if Wuertz is as good or even half as good as he was last year.
He had a great season, but relievers are so year-to-year with the exception of the best relievers in the league like Rivera, Nathan, Thorton, et al. Even saying that, his periphearls were very good, so this deal doesn’t look that bad at all.
I don’t think you can really hate this deal, considering it is only for 5.25 mil and 2 years.
No way he repeats his 09 but he was still a decent reliever back with cubs even if he reverts back to that. $2mill + wont limit his trade market either, if A’s decided to trade him in the next 2 yrs and bring up some other relievers.
Wuertz is a pretty good pitcher to have in the pen, competent if not great. He is what he is, not a star but the kind of guy every team needs. Nice to see him get some financial security.
5.25 for a 2 year deal isn’t that bad.
What’s the league average contact rate?
Very good reliever. Fair price. He says enjoys pitching for the A’s. It’s impossible not to like this deal if you’re an A’s fan!
I hope this is a precursor of things to come. The A’s may have 8 or 9 arbitration-eligible players next year. And with Chavez finally off the books, they might be a lot more willing to hand out a few more multi-year contracts.
Kurt Suzuki would be a good player to start with. 4 years, $25 million, maybe?
Huston Street: 3 yrs/22.5 millionMichael Weurtz: 3 yrs/8.5 millionWho would you rather have?This is a great signing. If he blows out his arm next spring, they lose five million (which compared to how much they lost on Chavez, is nothing). If he continues his dominance, you get a lights out reliever for less than three million per year.
I was not all that happy to see Wuertz traded by the Cubs. His Cub years were pretty consistant and a good guy to have on the team. In ’08, he was not as consistant and ended up in Lou’s doghouse. I believe Lou did not want Wuertz around anymore and that’s why he was traded. His ’10 numbers will come down from ’09, but he will be good again.