DEC. 6: The Phillies have announced the signing of Benoit.
DEC. 5: Gelb reports that Benoit will earn $7.5MM on his one-year deal — the same amount he earned in 2016 (Twitter link).
DEC. 4, 11:59pm: Benoit’s deal is a one-year contract and it will be finalized when he passes a physical, Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
10:04pm: The Phillies are close to a deal with veteran reliever Joaquin Benoit, CSNPhilly.com’s Jim Salisbury reports. The contract is expected to be announced before the end of the Winter Meetings on Thursday.
Benoit’s 15th big league season was really like two seasons in one, as he struggled with both the long ball and his control over 24 1/3 innings with the Mariners before being traded to the Blue Jays in late July. In Toronto, Benoit turned things around in spectacular fashion, posting an 0.38 ERA, 9.1 K/9, 2.67 K/BB rate and just one home run allowed over 23 2/3 IP as a Blue Jay. He missed out on the Jays’ postseason run due to a torn calf muscle suffered in a bench-clearing brawl with the Yankees in late September.
Assuming a deal is finalized, the Phillies would be the seventh team Benoit has suited up for during his long career. The 39-year-old has somewhat flown under the radar as one of the best relievers in baseball in recent years, posting a 2.40 ERA, 3.56 K/BB rate and an even 10.0 K/9 over 427 bullpen innings since the start of the 2010 season.
As Salisbury notes, Benoit does have some closing experience but for now likely slots in alongside Pat Neshek as the veteran setup options behind Hector Neris and Jeanmar Gomez. Salisbury speculates that Benoit could give the Phils added depth so the team could shop Neris or Gomez; Neris in particular would draw a lot of attention on the open market, though Philadelphia would want a lot in return.
Love him. Let’s just take a minute to appreciate the elegance of his name.
AGREED… Great Name
He reminds me of a wrestler with the same last name that is not even with us anymore…
Theres really nothing wrong with this gamble.
Edubray Ramos, Hector Neris, Joaquin Benoit, Jeanmar Gomez, Pat Neshek, Joely Rodriguez and one of Appel/Asher/Sevy Gonzalez isn’t a bad bullpen. If you ignore the last two months of Gomez season, he was a real good reliever
Ignore? That’s funny. Lets just ignore every players worst months. Every player now seems like a real good player.
Hes like the 6th most important reliever they have, hes almost a nonfaxtor
what gamble, it’s a one year deal
Benoit’s a good addition if they do it. Travis Wood would be a good signing to have 2 lefties in the pen, including one veteran.
I would welcome a complete audition for the closer’s role in ’17 since no one under contract is a sure thing.
I was really hoping he’d come back to TO.
Same here. But then I think that bridge was burned. He blamed the Jays for the injury and then one would assume the front office were none too impressed with him coming out and lambasting everyone in the media about it afterwards.
Yeah he through his team under the bus, douchebag comments
Meh, the price was too high for a 39-year-old coming off an injury and not that great a season (sure he was great with the Jays, but his overall numbers were still his worst in some time: 3.90 FIP and 1.27 WHIP). Can’t blame them for passing even if they did have interest.
Yeah seeing the price being $7.5 million, I would have passed on that too.
Agreed. (Jays fan here). Our bullpen needs a lot of help. I’m terrified. Lol.
BALLS
Typical phillies dumpster diving again