Adding rotation depth has been a known priority for the Marlins this offseason, and on Thursday they announced the signing of one of the most durable arms on the free agent market, Edinson Volquez, to a two-year deal. Volquez, a Wasserman client, will reportedly receive a $22MM guarantee — $9MM in 2017 and $13MM in 2018 — with his new team.
Volquez hit the open market when he declined his end of a $10MM mutual option with the Royals. Reports had at various times suggested that Kansas City might make him a $17.2MM qualifying offer, and alternatively that they’d pay a $3MM buyout rather than picking up their side of the option. Neither of those outcomes came to pass, however, as Volquez saw better opportunities on the open market.
[RELATED: Updated Marlins Depth Chart]
Indeed, he now seems justified in his confidence. With Jeremy Hellickson taking a QO to stay with the Phillies, especially, the market was starved for innings. That set the stage for another solid payday for Volquez, who’ll earn slightly more this time around than he did in his prior two-year pact with the Royals (in which he was promised $20MM, though he forewent the final $3MM of that.)
The 33-year-old Volquez didn’t turn in a terribly productive 2016 season, as he ended up with a 5.37 ERA after struggling through the final four months of the year. But he did rack up 189 1/3 innings and made more than thirty starts for the fifth consecutive campaign.
Durability was clearly the biggest feather in Volquez’s oft-changing hat. He has provided an average of 187 frames annually to the Padres, Dodgers, Pirates, and Royals since the start of 2012. Despite nearing his mid-thirties, the Dominican native has also continued to show good velocity, averaging better than 93 mph with his fastball last year.
While the overall platform campaign was hardly promising, Volquez did largely maintain his typical peripherals. He doesn’t strike out batters at the same pace he did earlier in his career, but with 6.6 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9 he managed about the same results in the strikeout and walk departments as he did in the prior two seasons, when he carried a cumulative 3.30 ERA. And Volquez continues to generate groundballs at a solid rate, inducing grounders on 51.2% of the balls put in play against him in 2016.
For Miami, adding useful innings was a key pursuit this winter. Volquez certainly meets that need, though it remains to be seen whether the organization will continue to look into higher-upside arms on the trade market. Notably, Marlins pitching guru Jim Benedict was with the Pirates when Volquez put up a strong bounceback year in 2014, so perhaps Miami has reason to believe that pairing will pay dividends.
Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald reported the two-year deal on Twitter, with his colleague Barry Jackson providing financial details (Twitter link). SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo tweeted that the agreement was in place and added the annual breakdown on Twitter.
TheWrigleyReport
Spicy
Voice of Reason
$22 million for a guy coming off a season with an era over 5 and a whip over 1.5. Ridiculous.
Travis’ Wood
Come on, WHIP is a terrible stat. Volquez had a 4.57 FIP and 1.5 fWAR which isn’t anything special but probably worth around $10 mil AAV. Just don’t think Miami should be the team giving it to him
MB923
WHIP is not terrible at all. It’s actually one of the best Traditional stats.
Travis’ Wood
How? It relies heavily on defense and ballpark. Cubs pitchers all had low WHIPs due to historically good defense, not completely cause of skill
stl_cards16 2
This is not true!! Where did this myth come from on MLBTR?!?! I thought we were years past using worthless stats on this site.
davidcoonce74
WHIP treats a walk the same as a hit. On that very basic level it fails.
Chefno2
With a 4.57FIP, 4.72SIERA and the worst K% and AVG of career. Marlins making these type of decisions again and again. Trading for Latos, signing Chen, now Volquez.
Travis’ Wood
Agreed that Marlins with limited payroll should not be giving Volquez $22 mil. He’s an innings eater and should be on a contender looking for back end innings
darenh
The desperate state of major league pitching.
He still walks a ton of batters and His K/9 are way down compared to his career average. My goodness.
Bosox1968
The Voice said it best…ridiculous!!
sandman12
Pitiful. You have to assume that last season is the best guess of what he’ll do this year. A really horrible, inexplicable signing.
trueblue442
This is very similar to what ATL is doing; finding an innings eater to help out young arms. I see no problem with overpaying a guy for less years.
virginiascopist
Except that Atlanta is not expected (by most people) to compete for a playoff spot until 2018, whereas Miami was. Recognizing the near impossibility of filling such a huge hole in their rotation, coupled with the less than inspiring list of free agent starting pitchers, if they were truly willing to trade (any or all of) Ozuna, Hechavarria, Gordon/Dietrich, they could have found a much better pitcher than Volquez.
JT19
If Miami was expected to compete for a playoff spot, why would they move some of their core position players to do so? I understand that you have to give to get, but considering the poor state of their rotation, trading one guy as important as Ozuna or Gordon would probably hurt more than going out and signing a pitcher.
jj954
Miami’s expectation for a playoff spot ended after Jose. They are in the same boat as the Braves now imo
virginiascopist
Well, if that’s true, then I guess Volquez makes as much sense as anything else, as an innings eater. Still seems like a lot of money, though.
bluejayseveryday
Yesssss I guessed right on the FA predictions contest
HeyBroItsBrad
As I predicted.
Think I’ve gotten to signings right.
Not great.
HeyBroItsBrad
Two
amjr
You’re telling me a young arm from the minors cannot pitch to a 5.37 ERA for a lot less money?
bluejayseveryday
Lol that’s not a bad point, though there are other factors.
HeyBroItsBrad
Two back end starters, for what was once a top prospect. M’s must have soured a little.
Hope the kid reaches his potential.
HeyBroItsBrad
Disregard.
Posted on wrong story.
Apologies.
maxmadsen
Making Chris Sale look even more enticing with these current prices. Volquez has come back from cra.ppy seasons before though. Might end up being a decent deal.
Mikel Grady
With sales friendly contract I can’t imagine what teams would give up
elscorchot
I’d like to be optimistic here, but I can’t understand how this makes Miami any better.
metseventually 2
Wow, teams paying crap players big money.
mike156
Given that the Marlins have a hard time parting with their money, $22M for 2 years for a player of this modest caliber is bizarre.
stymeedone
Pelfrey was available for a disposable player and has only 1/$8MM on his contract. $3 mm to the Marlins when payroll is tight might be a difference maker.
66TheNumberOfTheBest
As I’ve said with Cashner and Morton already, I wanted the Pirates to get them, but not at that price.
I’m still liking the roll the dice, swing for the fences idea of trading McCutchen for Shelby Miller (and a bit more).
IF and yes, it’s a big if, Ray Searage could fix Miller, his ceiling is higher than anyone else the Pirates could realistically acquire. And he has 3 years of control left.
A rotation of Cole (back to prior form) Miller (back to prior form) and Taillon with Glasnow, Kuhl and Brault competing for the last two spots would give the Pirates a fighting chance of being able (at least trying to) compete for the division.
After dealing Cutch, they should resign Matt Joyce and wait for Austin Meadows.
markmc1235
The only way I could see the dbacks trading Miller for Cutch is if they get an American league team to take Tomas’ s salary. I don’t even think the pirates would be willing to do that anyway.
JT19
I think the D’Backs would trade Miller in a heartbeat for Cutch. They might try to wait to see if Miller’s season was an outlier and sell a little higher than his current value, but they can afford to part with someone from their rotation. But I agree, the Pirates wouldn’t be willing to do that unless they got something else back.
jd396
I think I got this one right!!!
realgone2
ummmmmm ok
sandman12
Say what you will, but no one seems to understand the real magnitude of this Marlin mistake. Volquez gave up more runs than any other ML pitcher last season. Among 75 pitchers who tossed at least 160 innings, only one had a worse ERA (James Shields).. This contract defies belief.
Joe Orsulak
This deal makes the Dickey and Bartolo contracts look that much better
Logjammer D"Baggagecling
That’s too bad. He had a good career. Its all over but the shouting.
Joe Orsulak
This deal makes the R.A./Bartolo contracts that much better
greatgame 2
Unbelievable bad decision for a 5.37 era guy
davidcoonce74
This isn’t really an overpay. Around 10 million/year is what an average pitcher makes, especially one who can absorb innings. Volquez wasn’t great in 2016 but was good for the two seasons before this. He’s moving to a better pitching park in the easier league. It’s reasonable to think he’ll be league-average again. Unfortunately, as we know, the Marlins have a huge hole in their rotation. This is a possible contending team but the rotation is pretty thin.
Phillies2017
Two words:
Jim Benedict
ukJaysfan
Two words: Jason LaRue
L.Wrong Hubbard
Been there , done that … glad the bucs passed him up
xD2V
Honestly, great deal. Relatively low/perfect price for a pitcher of his caliber (innings eater who should pitch better in the National League), and also considering how high the pitching market will be. Good way to start the offseason for the Miami Marlins.
raltongo 3
I’d rather have Volquez for 2/22mm than Hellickson for 1/17.5mm. Don’t quite understand where all the hate is coming from; seems to be quite in line with what mediocrity earns these days…
Nick4747
It’s because in the most recent year (last year) he was way better. Personally I like both signings bringing volquez to the nl again should be a good deal for cheap and @ the very least his history shows he’ll be out there every fifth day which can be huge. And there is no such thing as a bad deal especially when you’ve had the payroll in the past as large as the Phillies.
Modified_6
“Good deal for cheap”
11 million per year
11 X 25 = 275…. So if you signed an entire team to “cheap” deals you’d have a 275 mil dollar payroll….
I don’t understand how people call these bad contracts cheap. It baffles me.
Nick4747
You’re acting like everyone gets paid like a starter or you don’t have guys on minimum contracts under your scenario so backup catchers get 11 million now or a backup middle infielder he’s getting paid to throw close to 200 innings if you had 5 guys do that typically your rotation is in great shape making your team in great shape.
Modified_6
Ok, fair. 3 bench pieces, and 4 relief pitchers can be league minimum… Now we’re down to a 200 mil team salary…
How do you not see what is going to be a 4th or 5th starter making 11 mil as a huge mistake? That is not cheap at all. A lot of teams have rookies or young guys without tons of promise or decent numbers making nothing as their 4th or 5th starter, that will put up similar if not way better numbers.
This is not getting a guy on the cheap. Not at all.
Nick4747
spotrac.com/mlb/miami-marlins/payroll/
Read that and tell me this has any significant harm to even Miami
Nick4747
And if you think that was even close to what they can spend read about 2016s payroll
spotrac.com/mlb/miami-marlins/payroll/2016/
Modified_6
22 million dollars is 22 millions dollars… Thrown at a pitcher whose numbers could not have been better than more than a handful for pitchers last year. There is no argument to be had. This is bad. Period.
Nick4747
Again that $ is insignificant on a yearly basis he logs innings that’s all they expect and he’s had better years in the nl you never know it’s not like their other options were all that exciting.
stl_cards16 2
“there is no such thing as a bad deal especially when you’ve had the payroll in the past as large as the Phillies”
Ruben Amaro Jr. is here with us.
Nick4747
You’re comparing a one year deal to the horrendous signings that Amaro has done they’re not the same. Just stating they can spend $ and using the past as a reference.
hojostache
It’s like what ATL did…but worse. Colon was actually one of the top 2-3 arms available (seriously…look at his stats) and Dickey could bounce back to be a #4. Volquez is an expensive re-tread.
beto
Its a good shot. Maybe Volquez can do what he did for the Royals in 15
DTI812
Not sure what the new CBA will do to the Qualifying Offer process but me thinks it should be based on positions.
Dmalsch22
Every time I see something about the marlins, whether it’s a signing or a rumor I can’t help but to feel it doesn’t matter without Jose being there. When talking about a human life baseball really doesn’t matter at all but man that team lost a special feeling about them, a feeling that they could just go off and become one of the better teams in baseball, a happy good feeling about them was lost
Modified_6
You could call up a AA third baseman, pay him almost nothing, convert him to a SP after spring training is over, start him opening day as your ace, and it would still be a better decision than this signing was.