2:35pm: Correia will receive a $650K base salary and can earn up to $400K via incentives, tweets ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick. The prorated amount of that salary comes out to about $427K from here through season’s end.
1:53pm: The Phillies announced that they have signed right-hander Kevin Correia to a Major League deal. Correia, a client of Damon Lapa and Scott Leventhal’s All Bases Covered Sports Management, will join the team for its series in Cincinnati.
Correia, 34, wrapped up a two-year $10MM last season that was originally issued by the Twins (though he finished the deal as a member of the Dodgers). The veteran hurler was a serviceable source of league-average innings for the 2013 Twins, totaling 185 1/3 frames with a 4.18 ERA, 4.9 K/9, 2.2 BB/9 and a 44 percent ground-ball rate. He was hit hard in 2014, though, finishing with a 5.44 ERA and a .301/.345/.473 opponents’ batting line.
That rough year led to a minor league deal with the Mariners for Correia, but he went the free agent route late in Spring Training upon learning that he wouldn’t make Seattle’s 25-man roster. Correia returned to the Giants — the organization that originally selected him in the fourth round of the 2002 draft — and pitched quite well for their Triple-A affiliate. In 37 2/3 innings there, Correia notched a 3.58 ERA with 6.0 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9.
In the press release announcing this move, GM Ruben Amaro Jr. said: “Kevin fills a need by adding depth, durability and experience to our pitching staff. We hope that he can give us quality innings to take some heat off the bullpen.” That seems to indicate that Correia will be given a shot to hold down a spot in the starting rotation — a fact that is also evidenced by the fact that that the team optioned young righty Severino Gonzalez to Triple-A Lehigh Valley yesterday.
Correia will join Cole Hamels, Aaron Harang, Jerome Williams and Sean O’Sullivan in the rotation, though it’s fair to speculate that the starting five could look markedly different in a few months’ time. Hamels and Harang are prime trade candidates, and Correia himself could even be moved if he is throwing well at the deadline. Prospects such as Aaron Nola, Zach Eflin and Ben Lively are in the mix to get a look in the Majors this season, so Correia’s role will be to help bridge the gap to a group that the Phillies hope can help to compose their rotation for years to com.
He should go to the Rockies. His E.R.A in 150 innings will be 7.73
Usually a deal like this would make me pretty mad at Amaro, but Correia becomes the 3rd most talented SP to pitch for the Phillies this season. That says alot.
Hoping for Harang 2.0 or Hamels trade imminent?
They just optioned Severino Gonzalez because hes a terrible pitcher who was a place-filler because they had no one else. Correia is a place filler for Nola
Gonzalez has potential , he was just rush up way before he was ready !
Hes an AAAA arm at best, he hasn’t pitched well at AA or above. He barely can touch 90 MPH consistently and relies on mediocre breaking pitches to be successful.
Multiple scouting reports on Gonzalez say he rarely used his best pitch (his cutter) in 2014 because the Phillies wanted him to throw more changeups to work on the pitch. He was also four years younger than his average competition at that level.
I’m not saying he’s a great prospect, but I don’t see any reason to rule out the possibility of him being a fourth or fifth starter at the age of 22, especially not with his control.
Totally unrelated, but I was curious if you know whether or not the MLBPA has the power to call for a boycott of this years all star game in relation to the ridiculous ballot box stuffing by KC fans. Making a mockery of the whole thing.
They could be sued for breach of contract.
The commissioner needs to step in on this one. KC fans are out of control. Hopefully it leads to the elimination of the fan vote all together.
If Omar Infante or Alex Rios make the game, even as a bench player, it should immediately drop the all-star game for at least the next 15 years
Take the fan voting away all together. Matt Wieters last year, the Royals this year.. they/we/people just can’t get it right.
It hasn’t been a true All Star game in years, basically since the fans started voting. I have only seen bits an pieces of the games since 1989.
Instead of the top vote receiving players automatically being in the starting lineup, fans should still get to vote, but those chosen players are put into a pool, then the starting lineups are made out of a combination of votes and what’s within reason by the league or the manager of the all star team. That way, the vote still counts for something, but it doesn’t become a contest of what team gets the most fans to vote 38 times for them and cause what we’re seeing now.
Same thing Michael Jack just said on MLB network.
Oh that’s funny, glad I’m not the only person out there who thinks that would be a good idea
but then you get into the argument of whats “within reason.”
Use Alex Gordon who isn’t hitting that well this year, as an example. Hes hitting .251 with 6 HR. Those aren’t AS numbers by any stretch, but if the MLB vetoed him as a starter, that would cause an issue.
It would have to be a bit of a judgement call for sure, but you would think that whoever is in charge of that decision would take all things into consideration so it’s as close to a fair choice as possible, that’s why I say consider both performance and votes. It would be better than the type of issue going on right now.
From USA Today: “Fans elected seven Reds to start the 1957 game in St. Louis, but after concluding half the fan ballots came from Cincinnati, baseball commissioner Ford Frick added Willie Mays and Hank Aaron to the NL lineup in place of Reds outfielders Gus Bell and Wally Post.”
So there’s a precedent for the commissioner stepping in
Trying to get some innings. Severino hadn’t gone past the fifth since he’d been called back up.
They also don’t want to rush Nola and burn service time during a lost season.
Phillies also just signed JC Gutierrez to a MiLB deal. Could be insurance to a Papelbon deal. He comes in to the 7th inning role, Garcia to the 8th and Giles closing.
Grabbing up the Giants leftovers… who’s next Robert Coello?
This is your basic Statue of Liberty signing–the tired, the poor, the wretched, yearning to pitch in Philly.
I thought Correia was on the Giants Triple A, did they trade him to the Phillies?
No. He was a FA…he opted out the end of May. Click on his name below the article (Categories: Kevin Correia) and it will give you all the posts he is mentioned.
Thanks, never heard the details 🙂