The Red Sox made an excellent move today, signing Bobby Jenks to a 2 year, 12 million dollar deal. While some have suggested this means Jonathan Papelbon is on the trading block, I do not see how they would get nearly enough value for him in a trade for it to make sense. He is expensive and coming off a bad season, so any suitors will be loathe to take on his money and give up decent prospects. It is possible that Boston just lets him go to dump his salary, but I would not count on it.
I really was hoping that the Yankees would nab Jenks to deepen their bullpen. This is what I said last month:
Jenks is a good buy low candidate after what is perceived to be a poor season. With Matt Thornton returning to Chicago, I could see the White Sox and Jenks parting ways. Jenks has conditioning issues and clashed with Ozzie Guillen at times, but he is clearly an immense talent. Jenks had a 4.44 ERA in 2010, but was victimized by an astronomical .368 BABIP and a LOB% of 65.4. His FIP was 2.59 (xFIP of 2.62) and he struck out 10.42 batters per nine while walking 3.08. Scraping past the surface of blown saves and ERA shows that Jenks actually had an excellent year. He would be an excellent fit to replace Kerry Wood as the 8th inning guy, and his cost is the only issue that would scare me away.
2 years and 12 million dollars is quite a reasonable price for his services, so I think Brian Cashman was asleep at the wheel here. However, Mark Feinsand is reporting that the Yankees are looking into a superior pitcher:
According to a source with knowledge of the Yankees’ thinking, the Bombers are “exploring” the option of signing Soriano, the All-Star closer who pitched last year for the Rays.
With plenty of money to spare in the wake of Cliff Lee’s return to Philadelphia, the Yankees have held preliminary discussions with Scott Boras about Soriano, the source said.
The Yankees’ inability to land Lee has shifted their emphasis on bolstering the bullpen, using their unexpected slush fund toward doing so.
The Yankees had hoped to bring back Kerry Wood to serve in the primary setup role for Rivera, but the 33-year-old is said to be seeking a two-year deal worth $12 million, more than the Yankees are prepared to pay the oft-injured righthander.
In the case of Soriano – who 45-for-48 in save opportunities while posting a 1.73 ERA for Tampa Bay – Cashman is said to be willing to make an exception, paying him “closer money” to back up Rivera with the thought of the 31-year-old bring groomed to eventually succeed the iconic Hall of Fame-bound closer.
Soriano is better than Jenks, but he is also likely to be considerably more expensive and would cost the Yankees their first round pick. Being that the bullpen is more in need of solid depth than major star power, I do not think it would be prudent to sign Soriano to a large deal at “closer money.” Cashman should look into someone like Grant Balfour instead, who can give the club solid performance at a significantly cheaper price. (Edit: Oops, it seems Balfour is also a Type A free agent. Pass on that as well.)
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23 Responses to Bullpen Notes: Boston Adds Jenks, Yankees Eye Soriano
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Balfour is a Type A free agent. No way I give up a 1st round pick for him…
Jenks signing with the RS is now Cashman’s second without-a-doubt-about-it-loss of the offseason. Cash is getting some poor advice. Jenks’s career is better than solid. He would have cost ONLY cash, no draft picks. Now, the last good reliever on the mkt is going to cost DOUBLE what jenks signed and a loss of a 1st rd draft slot.
Very disappointed. The RS just shortened the game, and now have added a THIRD guy to the ‘pen who could close. Who the fuck is in the ‘pen aside from Mo who’s coming off a good year?
Soriano is better than Jenks.
Also: The Cubs agreed to sign Kerry Wood to a one-year deal worth $1.5MM,
- Hello Cashman? Jesus… I’ll be interested to see what he pulls off but so far I’m very unimpressed this year.
If that’s true then there was no way to keep him from going back to the Cubs because we could have given more money and maybe another year.
Yeah, execly, Chris.
I read he turned down 1 year 3.5 million from the White Sox.
He must be looking to the future: 3.5/1.5 > 2. Or maybe his heart won’t let him switch his team from the Cubs. He was there for Mark Grace’s last couple of seasons, I think.
The future? Whats in the future of two 1 year deals? ones just double the other.
No, you’re right with the second one, he said a couple days ago that he could never see himself pitching for the White Sox no matter the cost so it really was about going home. He was at an event with the Cubs owner and apparently talked about a contract then in just casual conversation.
This has been an absolutely terrible winter for Cashman. I thought bolstering the pen would be a no-brainer following the loss of C.Lee, but now there’s nothing on the market worth the price.
The Sox add Gonzalez,Crawford, and Jenks. We add a catcher that needs surgery & our second best starter is retiring.
Word today was the Yanks are optimistic about Pettitte. Martin’s surgery is minor and he is an upgrade over our previous catching situation. They are returning a 95 win team. They’ll be fine, and the offseason is far from over.
OK so if Pettitte does come back we are on par with last year’s starting rotation (assuming Nova could match Vasquez). Bullpen is very short right now and not too many options left. I certainly hope we do not end up trading our better chips for relief help.
Anyways, I guess you can’t complain until you see the finished product but I am starting to worry. Not a big fan of Pedro Feliciano ether. In my opinion, Brian Fuentes would be a good target.
What if that help is Soria?
I think people make way to much out of criticizing someone (Feliciano) who will end up being a complimentary lefty out of the pen because if Logan pitches to lefties like he did last year (.190/.286/.215) then he is going to be the main lefty out of the pen, he can deal, with a plus fastball and is able to handle righties while Pedro should never face a righty for us (well over .800 OPS Vs RHB) and as I mentioned above Feliciano doesn’t exclude adding Fuentes either.
Feliciano has handled lefties over the past three years BTW so he can more than handle the lefty Vs lefty only role. .212/.273/.310 with 6 HRs, 110 Ks, 24 BBs in 377 ABs.
I don’t see why Soriano would be a bad sign for 1 year 10-11 million when we would be shortening every game to 7 inning afairs and I whil I’ll agree we don’t need “star power” I disagree that we need “depth” signings when the middle relief of our pen (if we sing Feliciano) is more than deep.
Mariano
Soriano
Robertson
Feliciano
Joba
Logan
Prior?
Aceves?
Mitre?
How would that pen not be one of the deepest in baseball? It’s better than Boston’s 3 man pen of Bard, Jenks and Papelbon.
Sounds like it doesn’t matter though as both Joel Sherman and Buster Olney confirm we have no interest in Soriano at all.
I think we need to sign Fuentes even if we bring in Feliciano because Fuentes can setup and close on occasion for Mariano, it allows us to have 3 lefties in the pen as well 2 specialists and a setup man.
Mariano
Fuentes
Robertson
Feliciano
Joba
Logan
Prior?
Aceves?
Mitre?
I don’t think Cash was asleep at the wheel I think instead he simply didn’t like Jenks or a 2 year deal on a guy who has almost never shown the want to drop weight and as I have said before is that really a great mentor for Joba?
Jenks is OK but I think he brings some risk with a 2 year deal (his numbers are all over the place form year to year, BABIP, LOB, FIP, none of it is even close year to year) and besides he was guaranteed to the setup role over Bard and promised he would have first crack at the closers job when Pap leaves next year, if anything this blocks Boston from getting the most value they can out of Bard in the foreseeable future.
BTW for those that care with this signing Boston now officially has a bigger payroll than we do for the upcoming year (until we add more at least).
I mentioned above Fuentes was seeking a 3 year deal but I believe we can get 2 because Boston was our biggest competition for his services but now that they have Jenks they have no need for a setup man, sure another team such as the Angels could sign him but any team in search of a closer will got the Soriano route first.
I said above that
Joel Sherman is saying that the Yankees “aren’t in on Soriano because they hate the prices on setup guys like Wood so not anxious to pay Soriano more money”.
Umm Wood took 1.5 million dollars for 1 year so does that mean the Yankees aren’t going to sign any relievers that cost more than 1.5 million? We are really going to just pocket all that Cliff Lee Money? I’m assuming Russell and Feliciano would have been signed with or without Lee…. Not really the “Yankee way” and it’s not really a “we’re going all in” way either.
Given the market there isn’t a single player left for that kind of money can we really just go into the season with Robertson setting up again?
I was pretty positive we were going to add a setup man of some making but after reading that I don’t know how they can with that policy.
Kerry Wood sounds like a team player, his delivery is controlled strength. Yeah, he was shaky in a playoff appearance about two days after an unbelievably dominant one, but what makes the Yankees negative? His arm is hanging by a thread?
I don’t think anyone any team could have done anything to make Kerry not go back to the Cubs so I have no idea if the Yankees are wary of his arm or not but it’s a possibility but what Sherman was saying is that the Yankees don’t want to spend “Kerry Wood or Guerrier” setup man money which is 1.5 and 4.5 million a piece so does that mean the Yankees don’t want to spend any money on setup men or just not those setup men? I don’t have the answer to that one.
The Yankees would be right to be cautious about bringing Kerry back because he walked 6 per 9 innings and was very lucky by the metrics.
Yeah, Jon Heyman said yesterday that a Yankee official looked at him like he was crazy when he suggested they pay a guy closer money to set up. Maybe the guy he was talking to wasn’t Cashman, but there are definitely some mixed signals out there on this report.
I was looking at available relievers of the middle relief type that could possibly setup and I think you can make a case for signing either Rauch or Kevin Gregg, Gregg I know has a multi year deal on the table and Rauch is certainly going to make more than 1.5 million dollars so if they are truly against that much neither one will work.
Rauch is a big guy but doesn’t throw really hard and has never been able to keep a closing role once given the job, he has talent but I don’t know if he can really be a setup man for the Yankees or not, Gregg is a similar situation as Rauch except his fastball is more live but he has also never been able to keep a closer role and I’m not sure he would end up above Robertson in the pen.
Disagree on Soriano. Cashman has often stated he is against giving up 1st round draft picks for middle relievers, but if they view him as a future Closer than the cost makes more sense. Sometimes you have to acquire players based on when they’re available. Look at next years free agent list:
Closers
Heath Bell (34)
Jonathan Broxton (28)
Matt Capps (28)
Francisco Cordero (37) – $12MM club option with a $1MM buyout
Ryan Franklin (39)
Brian Fuentes (36)
Mike Gonzalez (34)
Brad Lidge (35) – $12.5MM club option with a $1.5MM buyout
Joe Nathan (37) – $12.5MM club option with a $2MM buyout
Jonathan Papelbon (31)
Francisco Rodriguez (30) – $17.5MM club/vesting option with a $3.5MM buyout
Koji Uehara (37) – vesting option
Jose Valverde (34) – $9MM club option
At 31 years old, I’d put him at the head of next year’s list as well as this year. For a 3 year deal, you’re getting him still in his prime as you wait to see how your stacked minor league pitching options pan out. He’s had experience setting up as recently as his ATL days a few years ago, so as long as he gets paid as a Closer he shouldn’t have any problem with the role performance-wise. Do it.
The only names on that list I would go for (Also Fuentes and Uehara were FA this year and Fuentes hasn’t signed and Uehara signed a 2 year deal) would be Broxton or maybe Capps because either one could setup and both are still in their 20′s, the rest aren’t on the list of “setup types” and aren’t that elite of closers anymore either.
Soriano is definitely the best out of this group and I think it would be a massive improvement to add Soriano to the bullpen because he would limit the times that Mariano has to pitch more than an inning, he would be able to soak up 10 or more saves a year so that Mo can rest and heal up when need be, he would make sure any lead after 7 is almost 90% of the time a W and he could possibly take over for Mo one day I guess but the immediate dividends are the main reason for the sign.
I would take 1-3 years of Soriano over 1 draft pick this time around honestly.
[...] former White Sox closer to a two-year deal worth $12 million. Although Moshe Mandel at TYU makes a compelling case for Jenks, it’s hard to get too optimistic about the prospects of a 30 year old reliever who has been out [...]