The Red Sox have agreed to terms with right-hander Aaron Cook on a minor league contract. The deal is worth $1.5MM prorated if Cook is called up to the Major Leagues, according to Rob Bradford and Alex Speier of WEEI.com. Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald reports that Cook, who has passed his physical, could earn an additional $2MM in incentives based on games started. Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com first reported the deal.
Cook, 33 next month, has spent his entire Major League career to date with the Rockies, posting a 4.53 ERA in 1,312 1/3 innings over parts of 10 seasons. His best work came during a four-year stretch from 2006-09, when he averaged 187 innings per season and recorded a 4.11 ERA. At his peak in 2008, Cook was worth as many as 4.7 wins above replacement, according to FanGraphs.
The groundballer (57.4% career rate) battled injuries each of the past three seasons, however, with his 97 innings in 2011 marking his fewest since 2005. With Cook falling short of expecations the past couple seasons, the Rockies unsurprisingly declined his $11MM 2012 option in October, making him a free agent for the first time.
With the Red Sox, Cook will compete for a rotation spot, according to Rosenthal. If he's healthy and inducing wormburners, he could prove to be a valuable, low-cost addition for the Sox. MLBTR's Tim Dierkes included Cook among such candidates in a post last week.
*facepalm*
He was an All-Star once, so he must be good.
Not bad. High-upside, low-risk signing for the Sox. Can’t hate this move.
i don’t see upside.
Well, there’s no downside.
i’d say 97 innings of 6.03 era is the downside
It’s fewer innings at a 6+ ERA than Lackey, so that’s a plus. Right?
I never hate a minor league contract, but I’m not sure “high-upside” is the phrase you were looking for.
I don’t see upside here either. he’s a bad pitcher and even worse against AL east teams, and no durability. he probably won’t sniff the big leagues this year
We are talking about Boston’s rotation here…..
3.83 K/9 watch out yankees
Hey remember when I said Theo should have added depth in the minors last year, and you said no because those veteran pitchers would be blocking pitchers from the minors…
Changed your stance yet or sticking to it?
sticking to it. don’t try to broaden my position from “in march of 2011” to “under any circumstances”
Nope. We were talking specifically about last year. But good to know…
I still think you’re wrong haha
Dude, how did you remember that conversation?
I take ginseng every morning… except when I forget.
given that september, agreeing with the strategy of the 2011 red sox is never gonna look quite right
but i blame scott proctor
To be fair, he kept Boston in the race too giving up that bomb to Ellsbury late in the season in extras.
They had too much in wrong areas in ML depth.. The Duckworth/Fox/Millwood types that were never going to help anyone and just take rotation spots from legitimate prospects that COULD have helped and they are doing that same junk again this year with Duckoworth Haeger resigning, Mathis, now add Silva and Cook to the mix.. Exactly where is Tazawa and Wilson supposed to fit into all of this with those above named retreads (ex Haeger) all starters for years?
Where are Balcom-Miller, even Ranaudo supposed to fit if say, Ranaudo does exceptionally well at AA for 1st half and deserved to be called up to Pawtucket, but cannot (or they won’t) only because the rotation there is filled up with people of -0- use to anyone, except the hopes of Pawtucket for a International league crown?
This filling up now half of the Pawtucket roster with rubbish of Duckworth, Pena Jr, Mathis, Thomas has got to stop.. They have signed 3-4 who have any chance of helping in the future (Cook included) and those are Carlson, Hill, Silva and remote chance of Spears, who they could call up any emergency body to play 1-2 games and do the same thing with if everyone went down.
Did you look at the Pawtucket pitching staff last year? They will take all the live bodies they can get. Most of the pitching depth is at the lower levels right now. Someone has to pitch in AAA…
I know exactly who they have at AA and AAA as hover around the prospect pool, collegiate levels as much as anyone TYVM…..
Ya know maybe these younger pitchers might not be ready right away. As the veteran pitchers proove to be good or bad, they’ll be either promoted (Seeing the weak MLB rotation) or released. This is why it’s called a minor league contract. The young guys will sniff AAA next season at least by June or July
You don’t have strike out a lot of guys to be effective (not saying he is). He’s a groundball pitcher.
Low risk/some solid starts as a reward signing. I don’t think we expect the guy to be a legitimate piece of the rotation so everybody can chill.
Minor league deal… absolutely nothing to dislike.
Completely agree. No risk at all, and there’s a non-zero chance he throws 180 above-average innings.
Not a horrible pitcher, good signing as spring competition at the very least.
world series bound, baby!
hell!!! i would just give them the world series trophy already, no need to play the season!!!
Go away and take everyone else who makes this joke with you!
OUR SEASON IS SAVED.
This is like… Plan G, what is going on >_>
I mean, organizational depth is fine, but Cook and Silva aren’t going to do anything useful.
They are the exact definition of organizational depth. Please show me a team with exceptional pitchers as depth. Please. I’ll wait………..
Your organizational depth pitching is supposed to have upside, though x_x
Every team makes these kind of moves. It’s a no risk move for an emergency starter. If they turn out to contribute then it’s a great unexpected bonus.
I’m fine with the fools who suddenly are taking Gammons at his word that the Red Sox see Silva as this year’s Garcia. But I’m a little annoyed with Red Sox fans who dislike this move believing it’s significant. As I said, this move is simply to stock Pawtucket with emergency arms. If one of them contributes then that’s great… but otherwise, so what.
I’m just getting antsy because we still haven’t signed a legit starter, and so all these little moves just remind me of that fact.
ok, would you rather sign a starter to a S!it load of money and have it backfire like lackey, or have small signings that if they don’t preform are easier to cut… Oh and BTW the yankees have not done much either, and i would rather have small signings this year given who the FA SP are next year… I’m happy the sox are not throwing boat load of money this offseason, never turns out well
If Oswalt is truly looking for a one-year deal, that’d be a perfect signing. Kuroda, I believe, is also looking for a short-term contract. There’s no way around the fact that we need another starter to be competitive.
everyone thinks kuroda is going to pitch in JAPAN, so that shows what people think of him/what he is asking for. Oswalt, would be fine, but he is asking for a one year deal to prove he is healthy and get a big contract next offseason, and i doubt he wants his “look I’m healthy” year to be pitching in the AL east. I bet he rather go to an easier league to UP his value
If Oswalt on a one year deal was the perfect signing, he’d have been signed ages ago. It’s been weeks since he came out saying he’d like a one year deal to re-establish value and there hasn’t been any movement on him. At this point, either teams don’t like his medicals or his asking price has been astronomically high for a one year deal, otherwise he’d have been signed by now considering there’s no shortage of teams that could use a healthy Roy Oswalt.
I’ll admit, I’d really like Oswalt, but his overall numbers are simply too good for it to be taking this long to find a team without some extenuating circumstance.
Pretending they don’t have upside is pretty silly. One has the best control in the league and threw some solid games for the cubs last year, the other has a high career groundball rate and was effective pitching games at Coors when healthy. They have upside. No HOF’ers here but they could def be useful.
Well Texas does have 7 starters on their 25 man roster and the Braves have about 4-5 MLB ready guys in their system to go along with their current rotation.
They said that about Colon and Garcia for the Yankees last year. Who knows, maybe they’ll suprise us. That being said, I am tentatively agreeing, though I can see some potential success. Granted they when they were good (the times they weren’t awful (if those truly exist for both)) were not as good as Colon and Garcia were, but could potentially round out a rotation if the Sox don’t get any ‘big names’
What is Cherrington doing!
EVERYONE FREAK OUT!?!?!?! OH WAIT its a MINOR LEAGUE SIGNING! both the sox and the yankees are cash strapped. id rather the sox give these types of signings then large contracts and have it blow up in our face (see lackey)
Just to refresh people who otherwise wouldn’t know. Starting pitching depth doesn’t consist of exceptional players EVER. If they were very good they wouldn’t be depth would they.
Always happy to see the Sox adding pitching via minor league deals.
This is a NO-risk, not even a low-risk. Its a pure MILB contract. Assuming it does not require us to call him up by a date certain (or he once again becomes a free agent), we have absolutely nothing to lose by giving him a chance. Even if there turns out to be no upside, its a very good signing by Cheri.
same moves as brad penny & john smoltz back in the 2009 season, neither lasted very long…
False. Those were MLB deals for more guaranteed money. Completely different scenario and opportunity cost.
As Brian pointed out:
John Smoltz: $5.5 MM
Brad Penny: $5 MM
Neither Silva nor Cook have the potential upside Smoltz and Penny had, but they will come with a fraction of the cost and are both “in case of emergency, break glass” pitchers that won’t count toward the luxury tax unless they’re needed.
So, not satisfied with having one washed up sinkerballer (Silva), they felt compelled to go get a 2nd one?
Well Sox fans if you are still not satisfied, how about the Twins trade you Nick Blackburn?
Funny story, Silva and Cook will cost less combined than Blackburn will cost next season alone.
Good signing. If it works out, great! If it doesn’t then, well, oh well!
an hour and no one has made a fried chicken, cook joke?
im not really shocked
This guy just might make Boston’s starting rotation during spring training.
He’s been extremely underrated. He’s not a good pitcher, but he’s got a legitimate shot. The Sox have a good defense overall, meaning a GB pitcher has a decent chance with them.
He’d have a better chance at success if the Sox would play Iglesias at SS instead of Scutaro…
Not a bad signing. The guy pitched at pre humidor Coors, he can handle getting rocked every now and then.
In a rotation with Buchholz, Lester, and Beckett in it, you can get away with having a Carlos Silva or an Aaron Cook in it.
Yuck! I remember we lit this guy up in the WS.
3 runs over 6 innings is considered a quality start. In Colorado, against the 2007 Red Sox, I’d hardly call that “lit up”. I don’t think one start means anything either way, just pointing out facts.
Agreed, Cook actually should have beat the Sox that game. And for the record he’s not a horrible depth play, it is not impossible he bounces back because he was only bad these past two years due to injury.
I guess they need starting pitching depth, someone to have in the minors just in case, but man this guy is horrible. He somehow parlayed one ok year into a 10M a year contract. He probably couldn’t strike out his own son, it could get ugly if he’s pitching in the AL East.
Everybody keeps saying he won’t make the rotation, but given that Boston has only 3 major league calibre starters in the organization, Cook should be fully expected to get a good number of starts.
This hurts and I’m not even a Sox fan.
How does it hurt?
Oh sweet Jesus, a minor-league deal! Let’s overreact!
What the heck is with Boston this year? They remind me of Scrooge splurging on potato soup. Guess they haven’t figured out they need real players yet. How many scrap heap has-beens does it take to make ‘depth’ ? Maybe they’re just for the chicken and beer runs between innings.
He won’t have any trouble transitioning from one team that hasn’t made the playoffs the last two years to another.