3:24pm: The Marlins will have to trade for Willis if they want to acquire him, according to Clark Spencer and Manny Navarro of the Miami Herald. Willis would prefer to play closer to the West Coast, so it seems unlikely that he would sign with the Marlins if he becomes a free agent.
12:52pm: At least four teams are interested in recently-designated Tigers lefty Dontrelle Willis, tweets Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post: the Diamondbacks, Mets, Brewers, and Marlins.
Arizona's interest was reported yesterday by Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic, with agent Matt Sosnick noting that Willis would like to play there. Andy Martino of the New York Daily News wrote that the Mets were not interested in Willis, while Capozzi termed the Marlins' interest in a reunion as "mild." Today is the first we've heard of the Brewers. At any rate, it appears that the 28-year-old southpaw will be traded rather than released.
He definitely should return to the NL.
If I were Dontrelle, I’d go to the Mets. The ball park is forgiving and he won’t have to fear giving up the fly ball. Not to mention they only have 2 starting pitchers in their 5 man rotation. He would not have to look over his shoulder in that rotation.
SP w/anxiety issues + NYC = bad idea.
Good point Dan, but he has to go somewhere where he can pitch on a regular basis. The Mets rotation is presently Johan, Pelfrey, Takahashi (who got rocked last night), RA Dickey (a minor league knuckleballer) and mystery meat as the 5th starter.
Dontrelle would instantly be their #3 starter and have all the rope he needed to succeed. The pressure would be on him to just be league average in NY. No one would be looking at him to be a savior.
Niese is the #5. Dickey is a minor leaguer who became a knuckleballer
rather recently. Takahashi’s one bad outing may be the exception, not
the rule (too early to tell). Willis is Oliver Perez-light.
No can do — he would then take the title of “Worst Mets Pitching Contract” from Oliver Perez.
Not when the Mets would only be paying the minimum.
And by the way, the Willis contract isn’t as bad as Ollie’s.
If the Mets paid the minimum. Was there an indication the Tigers would pick up the rest?
But you are correct, marginally. Both Ollie and Dontrelle are pulling in $12MM this season, though Willis’ contract ends this year.
Well, the Tigers wouldn’t make the Mets take the whole (prorated) 12MM left. The Tigers would probably eat all but maybe 1MM of his salary. Otherwise, no one would have interest and just wait for Willis to be released, then any team willing to pay the minimum could have him.
It doesn’t matter when the contract ends. Perez had a worse one. His was a 3/36MM deal, while Willis had a 3/29MM deal.
If I were Dontrelle, I would go to the Diamondbacks. Low pressure environment in the National League. Very good opportunity to make it back into a Major League rotation and get a considerable number of starts.
he should go to the dbacks. it would really boost the giants team batting average playing against him.
As a Mets fan, I want no part of this guy. He was figured out…plain and simple and the Mets already have too many “iffy” options for the rotation.
No he had mechanical issues his last year with the Marlins and hasn’t figured them out fully. He needs a good pitching coach more than anything else
Dave Duncan? Cardinals need a replacement level player as lohse is likely out until late August and I don’t see Tony liking another rookie staying in the rotation like Walters or ottavino.
I keep seeing how he needs a good pitching coach and how Dave Duncan needs to “fix” him. Rick Knapp has been an excellent coach for Detroit and couldn’t do anything for him. Y’all are overestimating the abilities of Dave Duncan just a bit.
Apparently Willis was already househunting in AZ before this all started, so I gotta believe he’s coming here.
JB loves those valley residents…
Perez and Willis on the same team? That’s brutal.
I don’t see the Mets as the fit either. I think AZ will give him a shot, even though it’s not a very good fit, but if I were him, I’d go to Milwaukee for the pitching coach. Smaller city too, and no pressure, which doesn’t hurt. I don’t think Miami is the right call either. He was dead when he left, I’m not sure what going back there is gonna do to help.
come back to Miami D-Train!!! cant believe they traded him and Cabrera in the first place, i love my team but hate the front office with a passion!!!
I wouldnt the fish has one of the best front offices in the mlb but the Miggy trade was a bad one so far as Andrew miller cant pitch in the majors and Maybin cant hit in the mlb right now tigers won by far but the marlins office is a very good one
When a team DFA’s someone and releases him, they are responsible for the entirety of the contract. The signing team can pick him up for the league minimum of 400k.
When Detroit traded Nate Robertson to Florida for a marginal minor leaguer, they paid all but the last 400k. The same thing will probably happen if they are fortunate enough to trade Dontrelle, rather than have to just release him – either Dontrelle and payment of his contract for a marginal prospect or, if there is actually competition, they might get someone to give up a marginal player and up to $1m for Dontrelle and payment of his contract.
That’s the best they could hope for, I think, unless they take a bad contract back as an exchange, but that would have to be for just this year (no 2 year deals like Ollie!).
I’m confused. Is there interest from the Mets or not? That report is contradicting itself with two different jounalists.
I think the Giants should consider picking him up. Dontrelle is a Bay Area guy, could regain that spark he once had pitching with the staff in SF. He could be a low risk pick up, that could fill in that 5th slot whe Wellemeyer finally falls apart. The D-Train should make his next stop in SF, if the feeling is mutual between him and team. I think working with Dave Righetti could be what he needs!
Lincecum
Cain
Zito
Sanchez
Willis
If the tigers were to take Suppan and a low level prospect I would be all for this. Although that would mean the brewers would have to DFA Suppan which could happen but they would have to make sure Willis would sign a minor league contract for next year. Who knows though the way melvin operates he will probably trade them gallardo so that like texas and cruz they have a backup plan for the future. That still pisses me off.