The Pirates and left-hander Martín Pérez are in agreement on a contract, pending a physical, per a report from Robert Murray of FanSided. It will be a one-year, $8MM deal, per Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Pérez, 33 in April, had a career year in 2022 but couldn’t keep it going into the following campaign. Last year, he made 32 starts for the Rangers and logged 196 1/3 innings with a 2.89 earned run average. His 20.6% strikeout rate was a bit below league average but his 8.4% walk rate was solid and his 51.4% ground ball rate was strong. He was also quite good at missing barrels and limiting hard contact that year.
He likely benefitted from a high strand rate of 77% and a low 6.5% rate of fly balls leaving the yard, which is why his 3.27 FIP and 4.08 SIERA were a bit less impressive. But it was a strong season nonetheless, with his 4.0 wins above replacement from FanGraphs and 5.0 from Baseball Reference both career highs by wide margins. The Rangers had enough faith in that performance to issue Pérez a $19.65MM qualifying offer, which he accepted.
Unfortunately, the regression gods came for him in 2023, with Pérez struggling enough to get moved to the bullpen in August after the Rangers acquired Max Scherzer and Jordan Montgomery at the trade deadline. At that point, Pérez had an ERA of 4.98, with his strikeout rate having dropped to 14.4% and his grounder rate down to 41%. He pitched reasonably well out of the bullpen over the final two months of the season, eventually dropping his ERA to 4.45, but it was obviously not the season the Rangers envisioned at that price point.
The Pirates will be paying him less than half of what he made last year and likely won’t be expecting anything like that 2022 campaign, as it stands out as a clear outlier. But even if they get the solid back-end guy that Pérez has been for the rest of his career, that will be an upgrade for their rotation. From 2012 to 2021, Pérez threw 1,102 2/3 innings with a 4.71 ERA. He didn’t get many strikeouts but limited his walks to around league average and got grounders on almost half of balls in play.
The Pittsburgh starting rotation had an ERA of 4.88 in 2023 as the stability was quite low. Mitch Keller and Johan Oviedo each made 32 starts, but Oviedo won’t be an option for 2024 due to Tommy John surgery. Rich Hill made 22 starts for the club but then went to the Padres at the deadline and is now a free agent. 12 other hurlers made at least one start for the Bucs for the year.
The club later added Marco Gonzales from Atlanta, who had just acquired him from Seattle as salary ballast in the Jarred Kelenic trade. Between Gonzales and Pérez, the club has added a couple of soft-tossing veteran lefties to hopefully eat some innings and stabilize the situation while perhaps turning into trade chips by the deadline, as was the case with Hill this year and José Quintana the year prior. Those two vets and Keller should take three rotation spots, leaving a couple of roles available for less-proven guys like Bailey Falter, Luis Ortiz, Roansy Contreras, Quinn Priester, Jackson Wolf or Kyle Nicolas, with this year’s first overall pick Paul Skenes perhaps not too far off.
This deal brings Pittsburgh’s payroll up to $66MM, per Roster Resource. General manager Ben Cherington has previously indicated that next year’s payroll could be an increase over their $73MM figure from Opening Day 2023.
Another $19m season for Perez? lol
try 1.9
it’s the pirates
Cherington would go lower if he could…
I too complain about how cheap the Pirates are, but players such as Perez in this instance, he could have refused the offer.
No one is forcing him to accept the offer
According to MLB Network, the Rangers had been in contact with Perez for a new contract but the Bucs offered him more money
So maybe it’s Texas who was the cheapskate and not Pittsburgh
“The details of the deal aren’t publicly known at this time. It will be a one-year, $8MM deal.” – MLB Trade Rumors
Lol
Yeah, or maybe that wasn’t released yet, Think!
It’s called editing as updates come in. The author should do that…
How is he supposed to do that? You get like three minutes to edit your post. He was merely speculating, and if I’m guessing, joking. Or are you referring to the author of the page? If so I’m sorry, thought you were talking to Steve c
No, I meant the author lol. It was in response to that 19 MM commemt only because it seems somewhat related to the topic, but I see it was bad placement.
My bad too, I realized it after I posted my comment lol. Your good.
Seems like a good fit for both sides and a reasonable price. They could flip him at the deadline if he bounces back.
and they already have his alter ego Marco Gonzalez ..
no one’s ever seen the 2 in the same room together.
Jason Vargas already sitting on the couch.
Could flip him easily but he is worthy of the playoffs roster.
Congrats Pirates fans. Your GM is trying.
So far, this offseason the Pirates are doing better at upgrading their roster than the Mariners.
Ahh, but the M’s have acquired “Payroll Flexibility”.
Don’t you snub your nose at “Payroll Flexibility” – the player is highly coveted by owners. Any team president would love to acquire them.
A Pirates article is not the place to discuss payroll flexibility as the Bucs do not have a payroll.
Soon to be followed by “Cash Considerations”?
Or the Red Sox
@I.M. Insane: Sad, but true
pirates in reality are scampering to make up for injury losses of Oviedo and Endy
Well, if the Mariners would give up one of their young starters, they could get some offense, but they haven’t.
Pirates usually do better than most teams in off season.
True, except the Mariners have arguably the best staff in the league.
Thank you, Mr. Nutting
Yes!!! Good riddance! Addition by subtraction!
some rangers fan! teen finally succeeding in arlington after talking about him in arlington for….15 years, was like a father proud moment. sad to see him go again. there’s FA’s i’d prefer pitching wise, but with spending uncertainty and needing a couple more arms to get through the first half of the season healthy, he wouldn’t have been bad to see come back.
PNC is the best place for meh lefties to not suck.
This is a great signing for the Pirates and while they still need to acquire one more starting pitcher, the rotation looks a lot better than it did a few weeks ago.
However, this amount seems low after the numbers we’ve seen other pitchers get. I assumed he would get a two or three year deal. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy as a Pirates fan, it just seems odd.
what’s odd is you don’t seem to realize how bad this dude was last year
@goku if he does what he did last year but now in PNC Park, he will be the best kind of backend starter the bucs could hope for.
He had four bad starts between two different months, his 16 other starts he had an ERA of 3.58. He was immediately good again after moving to the bullpen. Two years ago he was an All-Star.
The Rangers had the depth to let him figure it back out in the bullpen. He would have figured it back out as a starter as well. He’s a good pitcher with a long track record of being good.
if we’re talking about Martin Perez, I’m pretty sure he had one single good year and 10 years with a WHIP over 1.4
Impressive to only have one good year and be able to have 13.6 bWAR and 16 fWAR for your career.
It’s almost as if you’re wrong.
Actually, your calling him a “good pitcher” is wrong, unless you’re matching him up against kids on the farm.
I expected these kinds of moves. It’s almost as if the front office has thrown its hands up and said, “Well, someone has to pitch as a starter”
I get it. They’re biding time before their surgically repaired guys come back or young guns are ready and don’t want to spend big
But calling either of these guys “good” is a stretch
wowwwe did you really just add up all of his 0.5 WAR years of his career and give a total of 13 WAR?????
That’s not how WAR works… the guys a 0.5 WAR last year (and most years)
in no way shape or form does he represent 16 fWAR for next season.
anyone who liked your misleading post should be ashamed
Or be ashamed at your lack of reading comprehension…he said “for his CAREER.”
which would be an incredibly irrelevant stat .. and not a good fwar in that case anyways
Yeah, so that’s not what I did. It’s pointing out that guys that “only have one good year” and are “bad” typically don’t stick around for 10 years and have a very positive cumulative WAR.
I know how WAR works, I don’t think you do. Nobody ever said he was a star. He’s been a good back end rotation guy since he was 22 outside of two outlier years where things fell off the rails (’18 and ’19). He’s also only had one excellent All-Star caliber season, but that was more recent than either of his bad years.
Even with the two awful years, he averages 2+ WAR for every 200 innings pitched. That’s all most teams could want out of a back-end starting pitcher. He does his job well. The Pirates didn’t sign him to be a front of the rotation guy.
It seems like it’s personal for you. So I’m sorry if Perez did something to you none of us know about.
“the guys a 0.5 WAR last year (and most years)”
That’s accurate for last season if you use fWAR, but incorrect if you use bWAR. The part in parentheses is simply incorrect. He’s only been a 0.5 WAR pitcher four times according to bWAR and two times according to fWAR. Only one of those instances (2018) did he pitch most of the season, the rest of the times he missed most of the season with injuries (or it was 2020).
The only person misleading anyone is you.
He’s good at his role. If he were your best pitcher you’re obviously in trouble (outside of 2022).
Most teams would take a guy that averages 2+ WAR for every 200 innings as a back-end starter. He does that role well. Barring injury, which you can never predict, he’s going to give you 150ish innings of low to mid-4’s ERA level pitching. The Pirates signed him to pitch in the back-end of their rotation and mentor the kids.
And let’s not forget the PNC Park aspect of it. Left-handed pitchers also see an uptick in production because of the park affect, so he “should” produce above his career norms like most left-handers have for the Pirates over the years (even Rich Hill looked competent last year until he was traded).
I’m hoping he regains some of the 2022 magic he had, but it’s more likely he is a JAG (just another guy).
This Pirates fan was expecting for them to offer a hurler a multi-year deal for about double the AAV of what they gave Perez. Hard to get excited about 1-year reclamation projects when you hope the team is poised to be a playoff contender with good additions in a few places.
@Buctober Lots of weak if not plain stupid gms. Pirates did what I said. Let them spend their $ then sit back and pick off the best of what’s left. Everyone panicked and I told them there was plenty of pitching left. Perez is capable of out performing many of guys who cost much more.
I know PNC is likely the best park for crafty lefty SP’s, but it’s hard to get excited about a pitch to contact guy with our mediocre MI defense.
An infield defense of Hayes, Cruz, Triolo, and Tellez/Joe will probably be top five in the NL.
That’s two Gold Glove caliber defenders (Hayes and Triolo), a young player who in a small sample size has graded out well (Cruz), and two mediocre First Basemen. That’s not a bad infield. Go look around the NL, that’s probably one of the best defensive infields in the league.
Yesterday on several outlets, Cutch will be signing his 2034 contract with the Bucs for $5 million this current week
Whew…I dunno how he’ll look in 2034 but let’s ride it out.
He keeps in good shape but 47 years old I dunno.
Julio Franco 2.0!
I guess I missed the part where he’s their #5 depth starter
I could’ve sworn they brought him in to fill a crucial role in the rotation with limited funds & decided on him.
Once again, there’s no such thing as a bad one-year contract. Pérez has been bumping around replacement level since 2018, with the exception of a wild and crazy outlier year in 2022 that got him a big payday.
He’ll probably eat 100-150 innings for the Pirates without stinking too bad. Given current prices for pitching, eight million is hardly a high price for that kind of performance.
Such a low bar.
For many teams this would be pointless. For the Pirates this is a reasonable fishing expedition. Nothing wrong with a one year deal for a deadline flip candidate, especially because lefties have been known to rebound with PNC as their home park.
Quintana, hill and now Perez
Tyler Anderson too
Tyler Anderson too
Pirates actually improve the pitchers. PNC helps a lil but if it was just PNC then the only other team interested in them would be SD.
How does Severino get $5M more than Perez???
As well as Lynn and Gibson. Perez projects better than either of those two, and is 3-4 years younger,
You can daydream about Severino top ceiling. NY cost more to work live. And lol Mets exist for a reason.
You buy earlier you generally pay more. Lynn Gibson are pretty good floor innings eaters. Probably less or no teams think they can improve them.
Couldn’t they have signed Bauer for less?
there’s still time
doubt it. probably looking at closer to 20m to than 10m. AAV.
We already have Ben in town.
No we don’t. He’s back in Ohio where he belongs.
Ben is a neighbor of Cutch’s in the North Hills
If a mlb is even allowed to sign Bauer.
I do wonder if Bauer has been blacklisted by MLB teams at this point.
I’ll take him over another year of Rich Hill.
I’m over the Hill…. ha! humor I love it.
So this is Rich Hill 2.0 if marco can match Velquiez before he got hurt thats an improvement still need 1 more starter and a CF
Pay for a CF or good with Suwinski Bae Reynolds? I think most can get this one right.
Solid sign. Room to add more
Best move for the Pirates this offseason! And that’s not saying much! Lefties do better at PNC and I think he will bounce back and closer to 2022!
However this organization still isn’t serious about contending or don’t believe this core is good enough yet
They seem serious enough. Added 2 starters 2 outfielders a catcher and 1b. Filled every hole. Fans just want them to spend more money because they don’t know anything about baseball and think more expensive means better.
They will bring Cutch back and maybe add another pitcher and 1b.
Just adding the position doesn’t make them good! Perez is the only move I’d say could improve the club! Tellez isn’t better than Santana, Marco gets tagged! Neither OF is anything more than a 4th Outfielder! If you want to improve go after a SP, 1B, and to me a corner OF that is good! So when Suwinski disappears for 2 months!
You know how Santana is going to be this year? You are better than me. I seen some data that suggest his bat speed and ability to hit the ball hard is trending down. I will take the upside of Tellez.
I have no idea what Marco will do or if he will even pitch. If healthy he see some simple adjustments that could net big results.
With Reynolds Suwinski Joe Bae Cutch Davis I wouldn’t expect them to spend a large amount of $ on a outfielder. The kid from KC should give you a 700 800 ops depending on matchups.
No I don’t what Santana will do this year but I wanted to upgrade 1B not have a question mark! Tellez isn’t going to be better on defense and we know that. So he has to hit!
If the Front office thinks we can make a playoff run then go after Naylor, young upside and a very good bat!
Sign a SP that can be a #1-2 and there we guys out there. I like Perez but expect him to be a 4-5 and hope he bounces back to 2022 form! I disliked every other move but Olivares!
1 2 cost 25 to 40 a year and many years. Not likely to happen. Who you trading for Naylor?
We have a bunch of pitching prospects. I’m not one to suggest I know values of prospects but the Pirates have a deep system
About 10 good ones. And with no Keller extension and the Pirates development history they are going to need every one of them. I wouldn’t want to trade one of them for 2 years of a 1b.
Gonzales was pitching hurt last season, but otherwise had a pretty reasonable track record prior to that. Great community and clubhouse guy, who I suspect could teach Roansy and Ortiz about pitching vs. throwing.
Tellez isn’t better than Santana, but isn’t worse, and isn’t 38 with 5 seasons of catching on his treads. Unless you get 2023 Tellez at the plate, whatever you lose in fielding, you get back in power.
I get the temptation to want some kind of “name” signing, but it really is silly in terms of building roster depth. Hoskins, for instance, at his best is the same as Tellez at his best on offense; Hoskins is pretty much a train wreck on defense. Not signing Hoskins at his projected price (probably around $18-20M AAV) has so far landed Perez, Gonzales, Cutch and Tellez – all of whom have track records of decent performance.
I do agree that OF is a little weak, actually more on the defensive side than the offense. Would I upgrade with a “name” there? Probably not if it meant not adding more to the pitching depth. You legit need to be 8 deep at SP and the Pirates won’t be at that point until mid-season. At that point, if either Gonzales or Perez is middling but not terrible (Rich Hill 2.0), it wouldn’t be hard to flip one of them to a team with a battered rotation to make room for Skenes (for instance).
An inning eater if he can perform well enough to stay in the rotation. Pirates haven’t made a truly bad move but they need a splash and this isn’t doing it.
Biggest splash we had so far is that Endy is out for the season.
but you know, its hard to get bigger name players to even consider the pirates as a landing spot.
Yeah, Joe, as it is Kansas City and yet, the Royals have made moves this off season
Point is, any place is a suitable landing spot when it’s cushioned by copious amounts of cash.
Yep. Players go wherever they can make the most. A few will give you a hometown discount.
I think they made a huge splash. Added 2 pitchers I loved. The 1b I loved. Love the outfielder additions and new catcher.
Dream, you must enjoy sarcasm.
I’ll “love it” when Brubaker, Burrows and/or VV come back strong.
I’ll love it if Skenes or another one or two of the studs make some nice starts up here
And I’ll love it if Triolo shows he’s capable at 1st, Davis settles in behind the plate and someone mans RF along with Cutch
I’ll love it if Suwinski cuts his strikeouts down
But this isn’t even a ripple let alone a big splash
I knew they were in a quandary with their starting pitching. I get these moves. But this is nothing more than a tread water year ahead. Get everyone healthy, get them some experience, and push for ‘25 and beyond
Getting the best 1b and 2 of the dozen best starting pitchers is a huge splash.
It’s always next year with this franchise. Problem is, next year never arrives
In this case, I feel like this was a combination of a reasonable salary with a better opportunity for long-term earnings if Perez can hang in the rotation with reasonable numbers. This was a good signing on paper. I don’t believe it will be as good as Quintana, but I do think both he and Gonzales could fall in as slightly better versions of Rich Hill.
IMO they still need one guy (Montas or Eric Lauer?) to fill out the rotation and leave the 5th spot for one of the internals to grow into. You can end up with a pretty good record in the long run with one good pitcher and a bunch of coin flips in the rest of the rotation – 83 wins was good enough for the playoffs last year and the Pirates could get there with some slightly better offense and a reasonable (but not great) staff.
I think Oviedo’s injury prevented anything else in terms of putting together the rotation. They could have rolled the dice on higher-tier guy and probably would have, but got into a spot where they’ve got to throw numbers at the SP problem.
It doesn’t have to be a tread water season, even with the pitching in tatters during the tail half of last season, this was an above .500 team (barely, but still). Swapping in Cruz into this lineup instead of Alika or Capra, they easily could make up the 5 games to get to .500 (based on last season’s numbers); any amount of improvement/over-achieving, they literally could still be in contention for a wild-card spot that only took 84 wins to get late into the season – or at least until the cavalry is ready (Skenes).
Royals over paid and didn’t get difference makers. I would be pissed if I was a Royals fan.
I feel like Martin Perez will play for Texas at least 1 more time in his career, unless his best years are still ahead of him.
Since it was announced the other day that Pittsburgh Pirates will have joint broadcasting tv deal with the Penguins. This is their free agency splurge we were promised. Hope all is satisfied and buying out those tickets! Happy Holidays all
Awful pr. I would have set the bar so low that you guys would be given each other high fives with this signing.
I feel no remorse for my mlbtr friends. I told you guys months ago what free agents would be signed. If you got your hopes up with Hoskins Gray Rodriguez Wacha Montgomery Giolito that’s on you.
This market is deep in pitching. To only come out with Pérez so far, doesn’t look great for the organization as a whole. Free agents really seem like they don’t want to come here unless it’s to grab that last paycheck before retirement.
Free agents go wherever they can make the most $. Pirates only have so much $. Hard to pry $ away from Nutting.
If you’re a FA looking to make some good bank (get overpaid), you’re not signing a one-year deal anywhere. Much like Velasquez, you’re one pitch away from TJ, if you can get two or three years, you’re more highly considering that. So far, ZERO top name pitchers have signed for less than they really were worth, and it will stay that way until all of the desperate teams are done overpaying.
“Salary Ballast.” I like the nautical allusion, Darragh
Pirates got 2 moves to make
Sign Ryu
Trade Priester to the Twins for Polanco
Cutch and Velasquez are your 2 moves.
I really like Ryu and can see him if no one else wants him.
Cutch is a given that’s not a move that’s just cotton i’s & crossing T’s
Still need a 2B
2b is already on the team.
Bea, Trillio. Both can also sub elsewhere.
The kayakers in the Allegheny now have two new starters to love.
Righties are much better for the kayakers.
Guys who throw in the upper 80’s will be just as appreciated
Guys with a flat 95-mph heater are far worse than any guy with a 90-mph with two or three types of cut to it. These guys are professionals, velocity only affects players with poor bat speed and/or bad pitch recognition. I’d point to Tyler Glasnow’s time with the Pirates, and Mitch Keller version 1.0 – hard fastballs that were flat as a pancake get crushed; Adam Wainwright’s 86-mph cut fastball seemed to frustratingly elude a lot of sweet spots on bats.
Right. Because lefties struggle in parks with short right fields because righties take them 440 the other way.
Thanks, mr baseball
It was an attempt at humor, Joey. Have another donut
Every summer…
“This pitcher the Pirates just signed was GOD AWFUL last year, but this one time a while ago he wasn’t GOD AWFUL, but if he can only be AWFUL instead of GOD AWFUL it will still be an upgrade for the Pirate rotation.”
What part of Perez’s stats are you looking at to characterize his as “god awful”? Dude had a couple of bad outings, much many more good ones and a couple of meh outings. Gonzales was hurt (I suspect all of last season, even though he made 10 starts). There’s more evidence that these guys are likely going to be slightly above average if nothing else changes for them in terms of velo/spin.
Perez had 4 starts last season which would universally be considered bad, the same number as Mitch Keller. Perez is not the same pitcher as Keller, but he certainly has the potential to deliver 12-14 starts of 6IP+ with less than 3 runs. He did so 8 times in 20 starts before being moved to the bullpen last year; 16 of those 20 starts were 5 IP+ with 4 runs or less (basically Rich Hill). Hardly an awful pitcher, especially considering he lost his spot in the rotation to Max Scherzer.
Solid signing! Half what it cost for Wacha and Lugo and a better fit as a lefty
A+ Can’t imagine getting him any cheaper. Excellent deal as is but he is also one of the pitchers I named that could easily be improved.
Not worth more than $5m but ok inning fodder
Worth over 10m
I still would like them to get chronenworth on 25 cents on the dollar. Have the padres eat a big chunk
Wasn’t long ago this guy was really good. He can find it again.
Hope he does and the Bucs make a playoff run. They can do it too, if everything falls just right.
Past two years:
Keller:
18-21, 4.08 ERA, 2.9 BB/9, 8.9 K/9, 3.84 FIP
Perez:
22-12, 3.54 ERA, 3.1 BB/9, 7.0 K/9, 3.99 FIP
This is an obvious upgrade to the rotation. Even if we get his “bad” 2023 season, it’s pretty much an even replacement for what Oviedo gave us last year.
Pirate fans just want to be miserable, because it’s on brand for the city. Pirates could have signed Ohtani, and some of the weaker-kneed fans would still be crying about how Nutting hurt their feelings..
Getting Famous and expensive players make them feel special!!!!!
Pirate “fans” are what happens when you know almost nothing about baseball in general and even less about the business aspects of it. When I say “fan”, I mean people who need something to complain about when the Steelers aren’t doing anything complain-worthy. Doesn’t help much that the local media is either patently incompetent or outright deceitful when it comes to explaining the Pirates’ challenges against the large market teams.
Toxic fans.
I wouldn’t mind Colin Selby get ready this off season to be a starter, but other than an internal options, do you think Jesse Chavez or Kuhl might be a good fifth starter. Possibly Lorenzen or Brad Keller for a #4 starter?
I think selby is getting ready to be moved off the 40
I like Lorenzen. No on Kuhl, he needs to go to pen. Haven’t looked at Chavez Keller. Will if Pirates show interest.
I like Ryu Wood Paxton in that order. Velasquez. Even Hill if no one else wants him.
For that price, getting Perez isn’t bad, heck he might improve some playing in PNC park as some folks here have speculated.
Rich Hill is still out there, dude still wanted to pitch in 2024. Also looking at his baseball reference page is, wow…
Rich Hill is the everywhere man giving Edwin Jackson a run for his money lol
Hill was is their ace in the hole. Or more like life raft.
Keep bringing in arms
No reason Po Boy couldn’t have done this.
Starters options
1.Ryu
2.. Manaea
3. Clevinger
2B options
1.Polanco
2.Rosario
3.Torres
RP options
1. Hand
2. Peralta
3. Chapman
Pirates need any 1 of the 3 in each of the groups to fill out their roster.
Cutch re-signing is already a given
Could be finished. Should get 1 more starter. Doubtful 2b. Don’t need a reliever but someone may catch their interest.
Actually, the last thing they need is another 2nd baseman.
And relief pitching?
If you’re going to mention Clevinger, you might as well throw names like Carasco, Syndergaard, Keuchel into the mix, too
Maybe Rich Hill wants to come back
There are still better options for less money than any of the 3 SP you named. Manaea might have highest ceiling but he’s also the most expensive (he will sign elsewhere on an overpay contract with multiple years of term).
Eric Lauer, for instance, could probably be had for about $5 million for next year. He was hurt last season, but has a more recent track record of being good than any of the 3 on your list, he’s younger and he has an arb year left after this one. He’s a guy you could keep for 2025 at probably around $9 million if he returns to form, or a guy that probably brings you back something reasonably good if the price tag is too high.
That being said, I’m not 100% convinced he’s completely healthy. He did skate through waivers in October, but I suspect the Pirates needed the 40-man spot to protect some of their guys. He seems like a prime guy to offer a show-me type contract, he’s still young enough that even if he isn’t so great, he’s a southpaw with a track record; some team out there with the hubris to believe they could “fix” him would at least offer a lottery ticket or bonus pool money for him (unless he is just completely terrible).
Go get Yariel Rodriguez for 4 / 30M, extend Keller two more years and maybe add a solid 7th/ 8th inning RP and let’s see what happens. I wouldnt mind taking a flyer on Jakob Junis too, a guy that can eat some innings in a back end of the rotation and/or slide into a long role in the pen if/when one of the prospects is ready for the rotation.
They offered Keller an extension last summer, he refused and it was over the money not the years
Keller wants $15 million per year
He’ll be traded before he hits free agency
If they signed Bauer they’d make the wildcard.
Make it a daily double and sign Urias too. Bauer, Urias, Keller, Perez, and Marco/Priester/Ortiz/Roansey for the 5th spot.
Left handed check pulse check mlb contract check.
Calling it now 11-10 3.73 ERA 1.38 Whip
OK, enough of you seem to think he is a solid get. So as a long suffering Bucs fan I’ll be happy. Now come on, Cherington, go get another because guys like Contreras and Priester may not make it.
If the Twins wait much longer there won’t be any pitchers left!
I’m absolutely convinced the Marlins aren’t doing crap this off season.