I’m slightly disappointed to announce that another potential rotation solution (not named Sergio Mitre) has been taken off the table. ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick reported last night that Justin Duchscherer has reached an agreement with the Orioles. The one year pact is worth as much as $4.5M in salary and incentives; however, only $700k is guaranteed. Apparently, the two finalists in the Duchscherer sweepstakes were the O’s and Nationals despite a plethora of teams showing interest early on. The general consensus among us here at Yankeeist was that he’d be a worthwhile investment so long as the price was cheap.
Over the course of his career, he’s pitched to a 3.13 ERA, 3.86 FIP, and a 4.01 xFIP (9 K/9, 2.4 BB/9, 0.93 HR/9, .265 BABIP). With that being said, he’s only managed twenty or more starts once in his career (2008), and managed to pitch only 28 innings in 2010. During that time he pitched to a 2.89 ERA (although his 4.58 FIP and 4.65 xFIP certainly left something to be desired). His 5.79 K/9 and 3.86 BB/9 were also somewhat inflated (although the sample size is fairly unrepresentative).
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I would just like to add that, while I certainly would've liked to have had Duchscherer competing for the back end of the Yankee rotation, if the Yanks really wanted him and felt he'd be useful, I'm sure they would've offered him enough to come to New York.
This move tells me the Yankees were not convinced Duchscherer would stay healthy enough to contribute, and after being burned by Nick Johnson last year I'm not terribly surprised they stayed away from the Nick the Stick version of pitchers.
This also signals to me that they're expecting Pettitte back.