Right-hander Dillon Gee has agreed to a one-year deal with the Chunichi Dragons of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, per a report from the Japan Times (link in English).
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweets that the SSG Baseball client will earn between $1.5MM and $2MM overseas and hopes to re-establish himself as a starting pitcher with an eye toward returning to the Majors in 2019. Gee’s deal, which is pending a physical, also contains additional incentives to boost his earnings.
Gee, 32 in April, split the 2017 season between the Rangers and Twins, performing particularly well for the latter of those two clubs as a spot starter and long reliever. Gee logged a 3.22 ERA in 36 1/3 innings with Minnesota and overall posted a 3.47 ERA in 49 1/3 frames in the Majors. Along the way, the former Mets starter averaged 7.5 K/9 against 2.7 BB/9 with a 41.2 percent ground-ball rate and a fastball that sat at 91 mph. The 25 percent hard-contact rate that Gee yielded this past season was among the lowest in baseball.
Gee was a longstanding member of the Mets’ rotation, starting 98 games from 2011-14 before losing that spot in a rough 2015 campaign. He hooked on with the Royals the following season and delivered mixed results between the rotation and bullpen before ultimately undergoing thoracic outlet surgery.
It certainly seems possible that Gee had interest on Major League deals in North America, though perhaps not with the promise of a guaranteed spot in the rotation. A one-year stint in Japan should afford Gee the opportunity to prove that he can still handle the rigors of throwing 150-plus innings in a single season, and it’s of course possible that success there would lead to even more lucrative offers to remain in NPB beyond the 2018 campaign.
Kind of surprising he couldn’t find 1.5-2m in the states.
I’d imagine that he could, but not with the promise of a rotation spot, and he wants to be a starter.
If you saw him pitch for the Mets in 15, you would know why lol
Basing his Mets 2015 on 40 innings I see..
You have no idea how hard I pushed for Dillon and Tom Kohler in Milwaukee.
AngelsAdvocate, is your name really Martin Maldonado?
Whole lot of interesting names on that lowest hard contact rate fangraphs link, including a couple free agents, available to anyone who wants to pay them. Being that we live in “hard contact times”, the more of these low rate types you have, the more you might win. Gee might be really good when he comes back to MLB.
He’s really good now. I get why he went, though.
I guess he really wants to start he was a useful Bullpen piece for the twins last year
Steve,
What’s happened to the quality of your readers since we met at National Harbor discussing receiving The Mayor of Ding Dong City?
Steve why do commenters blindly address you directly?
He certainly was.
wow I didn’t know he had that good of a season last year, completely under the radar
Dillon Gee is also known as the guy who got cut because he supports the 2nd Amendment.
breitbart.com/sports/2015/06/16/new-york-mets-rele…
Lol at link to breitbart
did you read the article tho?
Obviously YOU didn’t, because they didn’t even argue that it was because of that incident and response. Actually reading the articles you link is key to trying to argue something.
How did you possibly read that article and somehow come to the conclusion that he was released because he defended gun rights?
Like I’m sure it had nothing to do with the 5.90 ERA he put up that year
Clearly you DIDN’T read the article, just the headline. Nowhere does the article say that is why he was released.
Gee was a solid met
Yes he was very underappreciated
It would have been really cool if he had gone to Korea and played for the KT Wiz, because then he would have been… wait for it… Gee Wiz.
Lol
I remember early 2010s going against him you would look up and all the sudden it’s the 7th and he’s only given up a run or two. Nothing spectacular but damn efficient.
I liked what I saw of him at twins home games last year. Best of luck in Japan to Dillon.
They are
Stacked!