The Phillies officially signed righty Jose Contreras to a one-year, $1.5MM deal today. GM Ruben Amaro Jr. said he'll be stretched out in Spring Training as a starter but is best suited for the bullpen. Enrique Rojas of ESPN first reported the agreement on Friday.
Contreras, 38, posted a 5.42 ERA with 7.0 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 in 21 starts for the White Sox before getting traded to the Rockies in late August. Contreras pitched well as a reliever in his brief stint for Colorado.
glad the cubs didn’t sign him
I’m glad the Phillies didn’t sign Alfonso Soriano.
don’t be so high on that ibanez signing yet….remember soriano did have 2 great years his first 2 with the cubs, maybe he bounces back, maybe he doesnt….but 2 years left with Ibanez could get ugly real quick…………having said that he was a very good player for you guys last year
I’d rather role the dice with Ibanez for two years than Soriano for 5 more and Byrd for 3.
I would agree about rather have the Ibanez contract than Soriano but Byrd’s contract isn’t all that bad and is considerably less and he is much younger than Ibanez. Have to remember when the Soriano contract was signed it was a much different time in baseball, organizations were throwing out 10-12 million for average pitchers at best (Hendry did that also, haha).
I can dig it.
Well played, sir.
I suspect, after what Contreras is going to do next year you’d rather have Soriano than him. Laugh all you want about the contract but if healthy (just like every other MLB player) he’s a productive player. Think you can say that about Jose Contreras at this point? Frankly he hasn’t been a good pitcher since 2006.
Philly fans are typically defensive but going after someone for making a perfectly acceptable observation is getting to be the norm for the Phans. I guess the success is doing the same thing to you guys that it did to Red Sox fans.
why so many cubs fans on here……and why are they all haten on the Philz i think this is a decent signing…….dont want him to start though…..should be good in the pen
What? First of all, what he said could hardly count as “going after someone.” You don’t think there are any Cubs fans at all who would make comments like that? I know quite a few who would and have. Unnecessary overreaction on your part.
Also, even if Contreras sucks horribly and Soriano has a good year, I would take Contreras for whatever contract the Phillies give him. Assuming the Phillies signed him for a reasonable amount of money, this is a low risk signing. If he sucks, the Phillies let him go or stick him in a mop-up role. Even if Soriano has a good year, the Cubs will still have to pay him the rest of that $136 million. Soriano has to have 5 really good years in a row to really merit that much money.
i know. if hendry showed interest, i’d be sure jose’s career was over.
eww…as much as i don’t like kendrick i would rather see him have another shot at the starting job over this bum
Have fun loosing a game every time he comes into a game to pitch.
*losing
Good bullpen depth, and can make a spot start if needed. The Cubs already have that role filled, but it’s not like he would have been the worst signing for them. He will capably fill the Chan Ho role for the Phils.
and i thought it was a bad day for the mets…. thanks for bringing your 5.42 era to citizens bank jose!!
The Phils will use him in the Pen. Look at his stats since he was traded to Colorado when he was mainly used in the pen. 17IP with a 1.53ERA…..in a hitters park. Why do people think he is the Phils 5th starter?? No way he’s starting. He’d be the Mets 2nd at worst
17IP wow dam, thats a good amount of innings to base stats off of..but anyway he would be our #4 starter cuz maine and pelf are better than jose, and prob even with his out of shape terrible season he had this year perez is better than Contreras!
why are these mets “fans” talkin all this smack for…….honestly you guys cant argue that the mets are supposedly better than the Philz and really just because you signed jason bay doesnt mean your kings of the NL…..all ik is that it’l be fun next year……best year in baseball for the NL East next year i assume Phillies win division and mets/braves/rockies make the wld card
did you just put “fans” in quotations when referring to the mets fan base? coming from a guy who probably made the user name “philz4life” after 2008?
calling out a fan base that has watched, lived, breathed, and bleed with this team during this rough 3 year stretch?
you better watch who you call “fans” man… i would look in the mirror or at your own fan base… you know the ones that chanted “lets go eagles” at phillies games 3 years ago? the ones that LEFT A WORLD SERIES GAME BEFORE IT WAS OVER because you went down by a run late in game 4?!? you would think that place was on fire the way everyone flooded out of there after arod hit that double
there were more fans to see the mets play during an injury riddled 2009 then there was to see the sad product the phillies put on the field in the early 2000s… bunch of front runners! no one has respect for phillies fans!
of course there were more fans to see the Mets in ’09, you opened a new ballpark, goof ball…
honestly speaking dude no one has respect for either of us…..people hate yankee fans, people hate Phillies fans, people hate mets fans and people hat dodgers fans, and did you watch game 1 one of the world series literally almost 3/5 of yankee fans left there in the 5-7 inning for an offense that is explosive as it is you would think their fans would stick around and cheer for a comeback, and i understand that things come upp,,, but all ik next year it’l be fun next year and i think Philz win division and either mets/rockies/braves make wild card…..
The fans in the city of brotherly love booed Mike Schmidt. Classless. New York best city to play in, best fans in America.
What pitching have the Mets added this offseason? Escobar who hasn’t pitched in two years?
your right.. with opening day being tomorrow its terrible the mets have not made any sp acquisitions …….
also its better to make no move then to make the wrong move… contreras is garbage
kelvim escobar makes contreras look like roger clemens. theres no starting pitching left so tell me what SP additions the mets will make that will make any difference?
You do realize that Escobar went 18-7 in 07′ and has a career 4.15 era while Contreras has a career 4.61 era while also going 6-13 last year. I’d take an injury risk Escobar for 1.25MM then Contreras for however much your paying him.
i could start for the mets. they have no one outside of johan
roy halladay > johan santana
think of it this way wrightismyboy……..you still have do deal with our offense roy halladay and the rest of our now solid rotation………..i dont want this guy starting for us though got some pretty crappy numbers when starting but he should be a good reliever
I like this signing. He won’t be a starter, and he’s shown he can pitch an effective inning out of the pen. Just can’t last much longer than that.
Huh I just finished reading Joe Torre The Yankee Years which I got right before Christmas and Contreras was supposed to be the next big thing. Glad to see that worked out as predicted. He actually cried when he signed with the Yankees and had to tell Epstein because him and the Red Sox were real close to a deal.
Yeah I would cry to if I got 25 million dollars after living in Cuba for 30 years.
Contreras to the Phillies instead of the Cubs, Edmonds going back to the Cards possibly.
This is has been one of Jim Hendry’s most productive days as Cubs G.M.
That’s true. Doing nothing was better than signing Byrd.
Ha. Can’t wait to tee off on this defector!!!
you’re a great hitter i bet
The Phils will use him in the Pen. Look at his stats since he was traded to Colorado when he was mainly used in the pen. 17IP with a 1.53ERA…..in a hitters park. Why do people think he is the Phils 5th starter?? No way he’s starting. He’d be the Mets 2nd at worst
dumbest statement ever made he aint even better then ollie. you should have gave him a mill to go in the woods and chop down a tree and build a raft with it and sail back to cuba so he can start for the rebel international team..
Not sure the Count is getting so much crap. He posted a respectable 4.11 FIP last year (most of it in the AL) and definitely helped the Rockies down the stretch (1K/IP over 17 innings). His forkball can still fool 80% of hitters, and more like 90% in the NL.
I think it’s a solid signing (depending on the contract details). Contreras could be a nice long-guy or spot-starter.
why does everyone say he’s gonna be our fifth starter…..he’s gonna be a long inning-reliever who can maybe spot-start if somebody is injured.
why does everyone say he’s gonna be our fifth starter…..he’s gonna be a long inning-reliever who can maybe spot-start if somebody is injured.
he will have a shot at the 5th starter spot. theres no way moyer can be a lock
jose doesn’t have that horrid contract on his shoulders anymore, and probably not the pressure of still being a 7+ inning starter, either. this signing reminds me of when the 05 sox signed orlando hernandez. i’d say he’s worth a gamble, cause if that forkball is on he’s still a constant strikeout threat.
I think the guy you put “fans” in quotations was not really saying that Mets fans are necessarily bad fans, but that, rather, the fact that Mets fans seem to be commenting on what one would think would be a forum that mostly Phils fans would be using is kind of odd. Just a little old-fashioned ribbing. But, you know what? The Phils are doing good right now, obviously, and God knows they haven’t been a very dominating team in the past, so this is a position that Phils fans are not used to.
The Phillies could handle him like they did with Chan Ho Park last year, giving Contreras an opportunity to earn the fifth spot in the rotation before sending him to the bullpen, where he’ll likely end up.
id rather kendrick as 5th starter, hes got good stuff
yeah a 90 mph no movement fastball and a sinker that cant stay down… thats good stuff…
sorry like to see him, because there is no way this guy’s starting
contreras isnt startin kendrick is, wow i cant seem to make any of my posts clear
I like this signing a lot for the Phillies. Long relief innings eater at a presumably low price. Nice signing, especially considering the small sample in the NL last year.
$1.5 million–not bad. I think Contreras could be a serviceable pitcher in the NL.
Guess he will end up in the bullpen
This guy has a 5.42 ERA and he gets a major league job, and everybody is saying how useful he will be. I am sure the roster spot could be given to one of the hyped minor league pitchers and they could at least keep there ERA around 5.00
I’m not sure why there’s so much talk about how horrific he’s going to be as a starter. Not going to happen outside of spring training and maybe a spot start here and there.
Contreras will actually be given a real shot to win a spot just like Park last year.I am hoping Kendrick continues his gb ratio (55.8%), but his hr/9 will without a doubt increase from the very modest .34 he had in 2009. Just because Kendrick posted a decent 3.42 in a measly 27 innings last year (most as a rp) doesn’t guarantee him anything. Moyer should stay in the bullpen…for everyone’s sake.