NOVEMBER 3: Toronto has exercised its options over Dickey, Bautista, and Encarnacion, as expected, per a club announcement. The team has declined its option on infielder Maicer Izturis, paying him a $1MM buyout rather than a $3MM salary. Izturis, 35, missed the entire season due to injury.
OCTOBER 28: The Blue Jays will exercise their $12MM club option on right-hander R.A. Dickey for the 2016 season, sources tell Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. Heyman also adds that Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion will have their respective $14MM and $10MM club options exercised, though those two options were foregone conclusions. Dickey’s situation was a bit less certain, though still more or less expected, especially in light of Alex Anthopoulos’ comment that Dickey had put himself in a good position for the option to be picked up (via Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi, on Twitter).
Dickey, who turns 41 years old tomorrow, logged more than 200 innings for the fifth consecutive season and posted a 3.91 ERA with 5.3 K/9, 2.6 BB/9 and a 41.9 percent ground-ball rate in his 214 1/3 frames this year. He came under criticism from some Jays fans after an ugly final start in the postseason — five runs (four earned) in just 1 2/3 innings — but Dickey was outstanding over the final four months of the regular season.
After limping out of the gates and posting a 5.77 ERA through the end of May, Dickey righted the ship and worked to a 3.11 ERA over his final 23 starts/150 innings. He had what appears on the surface to be some BABIP help over that stretch (.261), but Dickey has maintained a well-below-average BABIP mark over the past few seasons and routinely been able to outperform metrics such as FIP, xFIP and SIERA as a result.
Dickey’s option came with a $1MM buyout, meaning that this essentially boiled down to an $11MM decision on the knuckleballer. While he’s yet to replicate the production he delivered in his outstanding National League Cy Young Award season, steady innings have value. Dickey has averaged 218 innings per season in Toronto and totaled a park-adjusted ERA of 100 — exactly the league average — since coming to Toronto, which is worth $11MM in today’s market.
Given the uncertainty in the Blue Jays’ rotation picture — David Price, Marco Estrada and Mark Buehrle could all be lost to free agency (or, in Buehrle’s case, retirement) — retaining Dickey for a net total of $11MM gives Toronto some much needed stability. He’ll be joined in the rotation by rising star Marcus Stroman and could also see 2015 relievers Aaron Sanchez and Roberto Osuna by his side, depending on the team’s offseason pitching acquisitions. Recently, the Toronto Star’s Richard Griffin wrote about Dickey’s importance to the 2016 rotation.
As for Bautista and Encarnacion, though each is into his mid-30s (Bautista is 35, and Encarnacion will be 33 in January), each is still among the game’s premier sluggers. Bautista reached the 40-homer plateau for the third time in 2015 and led the American League with 110 walks, whereas Encarnacion’s 39 homers gave him a fourth straight season with 34 or more long balls. Since his 2012 breakout, Encarnacion has a collective OPS+ of 150. Each right-handed slugger will pair with the likes of Josh Donaldson and Troy Tulowitzki to hit in the heart of what will again be an incredibly formidable Toronto lineup in 2016.
as a bosox fan I grew to love Wakefield’s knuckle, but at some point it is time to realize the cost of a 41 year old pitcher outweighs the potential benefits of a knuckler.
Why’s his age relevant? If he’s still producing, a 1 year deal is a great deal for Toronto.
It’s not so much the age that matters, but the fact that Dickey kinda wears out Russell Martin.
Is it worthwhile to keep a guy like Thole so that Martin can take some rest? The downside is that Thole takes up a roster spot too. I think that point is up for debate.
Thole only becomes a problem if he can’t handle being the only #2 catcher on the roster. If the Jays are willing to send Martin out there 130 times and let have Thole pick up the other 30-something games it’s no big deal.
To be fair over the last 5 years Dickeys numbers have been much better than wakefields
Why Alex??? You’re going to pay 12 mil to a inconsistant 41 year old pitcher who will likely have and ERA of 4.00 and up.
$12MM is a pretty reasonable price for 200-220 innings of a 4.00 ERA, especially in Toronto. League-average innings have value.
With 12 mm we could get a much better pitcher
Like who, marucci19? Name them.
(Remember that no team is going to give up high-quality starting pitching for cash.)
Free agents like Brett Anderson and Mike Leake will make more than $12 million and certainly don’t have Dickey’s track record of delivering 210+ innings of work year in and year out, nor are they significantly better pitchers. Scott Kazmir will likely make $10-$12 million but he’s not consistent either.
When you review pay levels vs. performance, I think you’ll find that there aren’t actually that many starting pitchers in the majors who are available and will provide better pitching for their salary level than R.A. Dickey. That’s just the way the market is these days.
I would rather use that money for bullpen, look at the deal the astros made las year. Something like that we should do
Besides dickey … The jays don’t have starting pitching so why would they spent the 12 mil on bullpen…. Smh
I’ll trade you Ricky Nolasco straight up.
$12M buys which SP in this year’s market? On an AAV, maybe Chen, Kennedy. Comparable production to Dickey without a long term commitment, and all less likely to reach 200 IP.
I think people are underestimating what chen will get because he isnt a huge name. I think Chen is worth 15m+
That’s just what they need. 210 innings of 4.00 ERA ball is worth $10MM or so with no long term commitment. Not like they have alternatives and you can’t just count on signing 4 free agent pitchers.
Hes had a sub 4 era in 2/3 seasons with toronto is an offense friendly ALE.
Alex who?
To add onto an earlier point:
RA Dickey has a cumulative 654.2 IP from 2013 – 2015; that puts him at #5 for most innings pitched in that span of time.
Only Price (655.1), Shields (658.0), Scherzer (663.1), and Kershaw (668.0) have more IP during that span.
The criticism that Dickey receives is that he was expected to be an ace, but instead has played out as a very strong #3. Is that a fair criticism? It’s up to debate.
Not entirely fair criticism to ever expect a knuckler to be an ace. You take the good seasons, but need to understand they’re anomalous and accept that knucklers are league average innings eaters.
Dickey’s been worth an average of 12 million a year in his time with the Blue Jays. He’ll easily be worth that again next year. Put him at the back end of the rotation and rely on him to give you 200 league average innings a season. It’s not exciting, but he’s a nice piece to have if you don’t have to rely on him to lead the rotation.
You have a profile of Mookie betts lips? Kind of suspicious.
1 year at 12 million is fine. As others have pointed out, a knuckleballer that can eat innings, and keep the opponents to under 5 runs is a good thing for this Jays lineup. This lineup routinely mashed to the tune of double digits. Even with regression, I still think they’ll be top 3 in runs scored. Folks need to put his 2012 season in the rearview and only expect a .500 W/L, lots of inopportune passed balls, many many innings eaten, and the occasional dog of a start.
Too much. Should of declined the option and sign him to a one year deal worth 8 mil
Definitely a good move. A guy that throws up 200+ innings each year and has delivered a sub 4 era twice in his 3 years in toronto is easily worth 12m. With the uncertainty in the rotation, having Dickey there for stability is a huge asset. If Hutchison can take a step forward this year like we expected, we should be just fine. The jays probably wont resign price, but i think zimmerman isnt out of reach. Buehrle was making over 20m, Romero over 7, Izturis over 3m, and a few others than are leaving leaves us with some cash to spend. Shapiro said there is an urgency to win now, i expect to see one big SP signing.
Your paying more RA than EE, thats messed up
RA is making more than Donaldson too. Its just the way things work sometimes.
That shows you how good the Bautista and EE contracts are.