MONDAY: Kendrick's contract pays $3MM in 2012 and $4.5MM in '13, reports Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com. The righty can make up to $500K per season in incentives based on starts.
SUNDAY: Kyle Kendrick has agreed to a two-year, $7.5MM contract with the Phillies, the team announced. The right-hander, avoided arbitration with the club earlier this offseason by agreeing to a one-year, $3.585MM deal. This new contract will cover the 2012-13 seasons, effectively overwriting that previous agreement. Kendrick, earned $2.45MM in 2011 as he posted a 3.22 ERA with 4.6 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9 in 114.2 innings of work.
The deal buys out two of the 27-year-old Kendrick's arbitration seasons. As a Super Two player, he'll be arbitration-eligible for a fourth and final time following the 2013 season. As a fellow Super Two starter, Jason Hammel's two-year, $7.75MM extension with the Rockies last year likely served as somewhat of a framework for Kendrick and his representation at SFX. Kendrick's deal looks looks a bit more favorable, as he'll earn slightly less money despite the fact that he has a lower career ERA over more innings with more wins than Hammel did when he signed his deal — all factors an arbitration panel would consider heavily.
MLBTR's Extension Tracker shows that Kendrick joins Hammel, Ryan Vogelsong, Clayton Kershaw, Tim Lincecum, Chris Carpenter, and R.A. Dickey as pitchers to sign a two-year extension over the past two years. A look at our Transaction Tracker reveals that this is the fourth multi-year deal given out by GM Ruben Amaro Jr. this offseason. Jonathan Papelbon, Jimmy Rollins, and Laynce Nix all secured multi-year commitments via free agency.
Tim Dierkes and Steve Adams contributed to this post.
Hmm. So either they think they’ll be able to shift Blanton, or this is a prelude to trading KK. Maybe they think he’ll have another excellent year so they can move him at the deadline?
I think they’re preparing themselves to move him back into the rotation full time once Blanton is gone.
Sooo…they give him an extension, when he already has a contract for this year, before the season even starts? Ruben’d.
Seriously…how many Kyle Kendricks get what’s essentially a 3 year deal?
Wrong on virtually every count. It’s a deal that covers this year and next year and essentially prevents him from getting the raise he would get next year in arbitration in exchange for an extra year of security.
how many people thought it was howie kendrick until you realized he wasn’t a free agent
Hopefully no one.
Career 4.1 K/9; 4.6 K/9 in 2011.
Arbitration is supposed to be cheaper than free agency because there’s no open market competition. Superior pitchers, such as Bartolo Colon and Jeff Francis got less money in FA.
He’s not a bad pitcher, and is a good asset to have, but no need to block yourself out of non-tendering him if he regresses.
He’s only had one season where he would fall under the non-tender “line,” and they moved him down to AAA that year. Heck, the guy probably still has an option or two left, as I only remember him getting sent down to AAA once since his call-up (and as a result, he has less than 5 full years of service time).
Just a typical Amaro move: throwing extra years around when there really is no need. He must really feel there is some value in keeping the same players around, because he could have gotten better pitchers in free agency for a 1 year commitment at a discount.
The guy has only had one dependable year in his career, and that was in 2007 when he was an emergency call up who stuck. He spent the next three years as guy who only pitched when the game was out of hand, or a starter needed to be skipped, and frequently made bad situations worse. In 2010, he pitched a full season in the rotation, and had the LOWEST K/9 of any starter in the league.
Last year, he did well bouncing back and fourth between the pen however he still does not have an out pitch, remains very hittable, and is very prone to HR’s.
Not trying to sound like I am arguing for the Phillies in an arbitration case here, but the bottom line is that Kendrick is the definition of an average pitcher. And average pitchers DO NOT get two year deals, heck there are BETTER pitchers than Kendrick in camps around the league on minor league deals.
But, then again, this is Ruben Amaro we are talking about, who has never met an unnecessary extension that he didn’t like, so I guess I really shouldn’t be surprised.
What’s that, you already have a 10 year contract? Oh well, we’ll give you an extension. -Ruben Amaro Jr.
Or in this case, we’ll lock you up for next year for the same price we’re paying you this year. -RAJ.
Which happens to be more than he is worth in either year.
I don’t get it or like it. No need to guarantee next years salary yet unless you feel he is going to play as good or better then the year before, 2011. I don’t think it is wise to make this kind of deal the year after his best year because you essentially give the player all the leverage in negotiating.
It just seems like it was another situation where RAJ got impatient and jumped the gun. Though it isn’t any where near as bad as signing Papelbon before the new CBA was in effect, thus unnecessarily costing them a first rounder, or signing Howard to a rather big contract extension before hitting the market at the same time other bigger name firstbaseman would have, this is still something he could have waited on. I mean did anyone think Kendrick was going to blow his 2011 numbers out of the water and get more then 4-5 million in arbitration? I didn’t think so.
cost certainty going both ways, I think this is a solid deal.
Kendrick is overpaid at $3.85 to begin with. Agreeing to do that again for another year might make Mrs. Kendrick happy, but if Rube had that money burning a hole in his pocket, he probably could have found a better way to spend it.
I think this is a prelude to some trade.. The Phillies were in on Burnett in a 3 team deal which would have sent Blanton somewhere.. In any case, The Phillies have extra Starters and now someone can be sure they wouldn’t be getting a “rental” player if KK was dealt. Whatever happens, I believe this signing has TRADE written all over it.
I personally think Kendrick should have gone to Houston as part of the Hunter Pence deal since Houston could use another starter.
The phillies should trade kendrick and keep blanton
Agreed, and now that trading Kendrick means freeing up around $4 million or so (I know, I can’t believe it myself), take that money and go sign Roy Oswalt.
If Roy Oswalt’s price tag was $4 million dollars he’d be pitching for St. Louis by now…
They should quit worrying about starting pitching because they have enough of it. Oswalt will probably be on the market midseason at this rate so they can just make a decision on him then.
The phillies should trade kendrick and keep blanton
Good deal for Kendrick/Phillies. Kendrick gets security and the Phillies don’t have to give him much of a raise next year.
He showed real improvement last year as a swingman/spot starter, curious to see if he can repeat some of his success this year. He’s a more than capable 5th starter.
Great deal for Kendrick, for the Phillies not so much. Kendrick is under control for 2013 already, there was no need to extend him.
How many other “swingman/spot starter” types have mulit-year deals, and $7 million guaranteed? None you say? Yea, Rube overpaid.
(Insert joke about trading Kyle Kendrick to Japan)