So far this offseason, starting pitchers Erik Bedard, Freddy Garcia, Chien-Ming Wang, and Jason Marquis have signed one-year deals. On average, they're guaranteed just under $4MM apiece. This type of starter can return great value, as Dave Cameron of FanGraphs recently explained. Who are the remaining free agent starters expected to sign one-year deals?
As our free agent tracker shows, the starting pitching market is rife with one-year deal candidates. Wei-Yin Chen, Bartolo Colon, Jeff Francis, Jon Garland, Rich Harden, Hisashi Iwakuma, Edwin Jackson, Hiroki Kuroda, Paul Maholm, Roy Oswalt, Brad Penny, Joel Pineiro, and Joe Saunders should all be in line for Major League deals. Jackson is a lock for a multiyear deal, while Chen, Maholm, and Saunders have good shots. Kuroda and Oswalt seem to prefer one year, and are popular targets. Guys like Colon and Francis are coming off solid seasons and have cases for multiyear deals, since Aaron Harang, Chris Capuano, and Bruce Chen were able to get two years. Francis has a better chance than Colon, but those two-year offers are going to dry up shortly.
Starters such as Aaron Cook, Kyle Davies, Zach Duke, Livan Hernandez, Kevin Millwood, Ross Ohlendorf, Tim Wakefield, and Chris Young are also on the market. Hernandez and Millwood have the best arguments for big league deals. In January, 40-man rosters generally have some room, but not so much once we hit February.
What’s the holdup with Chris Young? Great pitcher when healthy, give him an incentive laden contract and hope his injury woes are behind him.
Well, the last time he’s been healthy was in 2007 and he may not be ready for spring training this year. That likely explains why he’s still looking for a deal.
I liked Young in his brief tenure with the Mets. He is still recovering from shoulder surgery. I’m not an expert but I think his pitching mechanics caused his injuries.
A’s should sign Jeff Francis as a fill-in until Brett Anderson is healthy
Agreed, I hope Beane keeps cleaning house and they grab a few of these high risk/upside guys around so they can flip them at the deadline for more prospects. I’d grab Fatolo too. I also hope they get Harden again and turn him into a reliever, but he always stinks in his first inning or two then gets warmed up and can be dominant, so he’s going to have to drastically change his game, or start warming up in the 4th inning no matter what.
i think any of those pitchers that are flyout pitchers would be smart to sign with the a’s, pitching in the cavarnseum most of the first half, assuming they’re tradeable at the deadline
As an A’s fan,how could you be up for another housecleaning? They acquired Gonzalez and Sweeney,and let them go. They give away Brad Siegler,Andrew Bailey, and Trevor Cahill. What happens in four years when a few more become good players? Do the cleanhouse again? At the allstar break, last year, they had a decent core of young players to build around. Instead of spending some money to improve on that core,they go in the other direction.
Forget about a new ballpark , or San Jose. You have to have a good team to draw fans.They should have spent their off season extending the good players they had. If they ever do get the new park, they would have been ready to contend.
The good players they had were not enough to contend in the AL West in the near future and those players were bound to get too expensive for them to maintain. Such is life for a small-market team. They have the right idea; they’ve conceded the short term and now they have to hope their prospects don’t flop and Pujols starts his decline early.
I’m actually surprised that Edwin Jackson isn’t signed. As for Chris Young, I think that he may need to take a minor league contract with an invite to spring training. I also wonder if Ross Ohlendorf may also have to go the minor league-spring training route.
I expect Tim Wakefield to finally retire.
Wakefield is going to pitch til he’s 50. That knuckler puts no stress on his arm at all and he’s pretty much still a tick better than replacement level.
I’d love to see a team have Wakefield, Livan and Garland in the same rotation, all junkballers lol.
Throw in Dickey, and you’ve got yourself a rotation! (almost)
Wakefield. Don’t count on it.
I would tend to think E Jackson is looking for more than a 1 yr deal no?
Jackson is a lock for a multiyear deal, while Chen, Maholm, and Saunders have good shots.
Pretty sure it was in the article before you asked.
I think Jackson is also a Scott Boras client and teams are balking at the potentially high cost for an average starter like Jackson. He’ll probably settle at some point.
As usual,Boras is pricing Jackson out of the market. His requests are ridiculous for guy who is just not that good. It will be interesting to see how this turns out.
I am surprised that Colon hasn’t been signed.
Colon might have to take a minor league deal and win a job in spring training; he did tail off near the end of last season in what was his biggest workload in years.
Edwin Jackson is the Rodney Dangerfield of pitching. 200 IP, 3.5 WAR SP’s actually are rare. He’s done that every year the last 3 years and is only going to be 28 in 2012.
Since 2009
Mark Buehrle: 629 IP, 10.6 WAR = 4/58M deal for age 33-36 seasons.
John Danks: 583 IP, 10.4 WAR = 5/65M for age 27-31 seasons
Edwin Jackson: 623 IP, 11.2 WAR = Struggling to find a home and is only a year older than Danks.
He’s durable, solid and young, yet, no one cares? He deserves a 5 year deal as much as anyone, whats taking so long for someone to pony up? Does he have bad breath or something? No respect I tells ya.
Edwin Jackson isn’t dead…
Is War actually recognized as a statistic by MLB? If there ever was a nebulous stat, its War.
The issue most teams have is that there is no adequate way to quantify a starter’s ability to keep his team in the game. Edwin Jackson is inconsistent start-to-start. Also, his career ERA is a bit higher than Danks’ and much higher than Buehrle’s and it fluctuates wildly year to year.
Sad list
Jamie Moyer!
I want Dick Harden on the Tigers. Just so I can get a jersey saying “Dick Harden”
You get your jerseys with the first name on the back?
No, but this would be an exception obviously.