M’s Sign Chad Cordero
Apparently the M’s weren’t all that impressed by the closer candidates they had in Peoria, so they’re importing a new one – Stone says they’ve signed Chad Cordero to a minor league contract. He’s still rehabbing his shoulder and trying to get his strength back, so he won’t be in the mix for the opening day roster – they’re looking at him as a mid-year boost.
Here’s Cordero’s FanGraphs page – as you can see, he was a strikeout/flyball guy when he was healthy, and a borderline relief ace. While the M’s have a collection of guys who fit situational relief work, Cordero has no career platoon split, and in his prime was a quality closer.
Whether he can recover from labrum surgery and get back to throwing 89 again is up for grabs – he was throwing 83 last year before going under the knife, and he’s not a major league pitcher at that speed. But, on a minor league deal, this gives the M’s some upside in the ‘pen. If he comes to camp and shows the stuff that he used to have, the team could have added a nice upgrade to the back of the bullpen. If he’s still throwing 83, then they haven’t lost anything.
Another no risk pickup with some upside by Zduriencik. Good job by the M’s here.
Oh, and since it’s kinda relevant and both GMs involved have moved on, here’s a fun Chad Cordero related story. At the USSM meetup in Tacoma a few years ago, Bavasi was giving us the rundown on some of the things that he tried to do at the trade deadline. He talked about trying to get Mark Loretta and such, and somehow, the topic of Jim Bowden came up. Bavasi kinda smiled and said something to the effect (not a direct quote) of “you know, I called Jim about their closer, Cordero – he asked for Clement and Morrow. I hung up. I haven’t called back”
I liked the part about Mark Loretta. Too bad we didn’t get him, he’d fit in well with other Bavasi pickups.
He’s signed to a MiLB deal so this deal is very hard not to like. It’s scary to think about the upside of our bullpen since it’s full of so many sleepers.
Good move.
Hard to belive that Cordero only turns 27 next week. Seems like he’s been around longer than that.
I’ve back, after a seriously debilitating stroke, catching up with five and a half months of Mariner news. And my god, what a bunch of happy news. I went in the stroke unhappy with the Mariners and I assumed unhappy was still the state of things. I was wrong, very wrong. Every time, the news was good, every minor and major transaction. The fabulous news about Tom Tango. The news about baseball moving in the twenty-first century in Seattle. “Another no risk pickup with some upside by Zduriencik” — I’m ecstatic, for the first time in . . . a long time.
good to see you back, scraps. You’ve been missed.
Welcome back Scraps! Yes, it’s been a very hopeful offseason for the M’s this year. 🙂
Woohoo, scraps is back! Good to see you.
Congrats on the recovery, scraps.
And the Jim Bowden story made me laugh too. When you’re discussing a trade with Bill Bavasi, and he’s the one that hangs up on you, it’s probably time to pursue a new profession.
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Holy shit! Scraps!
Good move, especially if the M’s are performing decent and he can come on in mid-season and be a factor.
Welcome back Scraps, great to see you here!
It’s good to see you back, scraps. And it’s just perfect that the news you find is that your favorite team is moving in a direction few others are. Your comment made my day. 🙂 Welcome back to Mariner fandom–a place where optimism reigns supreme. Weird, huh?
“you know, I called Andy (MacPhail of Baltimore) about their Ace, Bedard – he asked for Jones, Tillman, Mickolio, Sherill, and change . I hung up. I haven’t called back” – Bavasi (in a world where he still has a job)
Welcome back scraps! Although I did notice you post a comment before, in the WSJ thread – and I was happy.
That was a nice Bavasi – Bowden anecdote. A good reminder of how open Bavasi was with us fans, too. Bavasi the GM will not be missed. Bavasi the man, however – he seemed like a good guy.
(I apologize for the incoherence–I was delirious after pulling an all-nighter.)
-Aardsma should be our closer…that’s all I needed to say.
Depth? Check
Youth? Check
Upside? Check
Expericence? Check
Bullpen is rounding out nicely…
a day with two bits of good news– and, may I say, having Scraps back is the best news of all!
Welcome back, scraps. Glad to see you’re making a recovery.
Re: Bavasi. The man is funny. And it was fun to be able to sit down and talk with the M’s GM about… stuff. And things.
Dave, let’s say that Cordero recovers fully; loses none of his stuff, durability, etc. Do you think he has what it takes to be an effective closer/setup man? I have a hard time seeing it.
His FB is nothing overwhelming, and he doesn’t seem to like using either of his other offerings. At his best he was not real good at getting swings-and-misses (9-10% as a reliever is pretty meh), was not quite a control artist, and didn’t really K that many batters… I can’t really imagine how he could repeat his success of the mid-2000s.
It’s a fine deal and all that but what kind of performance would you expect from him come July compared to, let’s say, Fields?
All hail scraps, master of understatement! 🙂 Great to have you back — I know there have been many, many of us praying for you.
Scraps!!!! Welcome back! I thought I saw a comment from you the other day, but I was kind of in a hurry. Good to see you back and hope you are doing well. Yes, it sure is a new day in Marinerland.
The thing with the Cordero signing is there’s not a huge upside – he’s not going to turn into a star closer – but there’s just absolutely no downside either. Even if he turns into a decent middle reliever with no real platoon splits, that fits perfectly with the game plan that Wak has repeatedly talked about – having versatile guys in the pen and moving away from clear cut roles. And I really don’t see them using Fields in the bigs this year, save for maybe a September callup. As someone mentioned, there’s alot of sleepers in this pen, and it will be interesting to see what pans out.
yay, scraps!! welcome back!
Again, prudent move by Zduriencik. Absolutely no cost, and considerable upside. If he comes back, he’s more than serviceable; if he can’t, you haven’t even burned a major league roster spot.
We can (and should!) get used to that.
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SCRAPS! DUDE! Welcome back! (This might warrant its own thread.) Yeah, I saw this move courtesy of my Mariners text alerts on the company cellphone that they haven’t noticed yet. What the heck, get him into camp and see what he can do. Remember the last minute signing of Pokey Reese who got $1 million for never playing an inning? THESE are the days, those were NOT. This is great to watch.
Yup good news both, Scraps back, cheap pickup of a potentially useful arm. Not really holding my breath though, the checklist Depth-Youth-
Upside-Experience was correct as far as it went but left out one crucial item: Healthy Arm. So it’s a crapshoot; a very cheap one but it’ll take some luck to see a payoff.
Welcome back, Scraps!
Slurve is right, we have alot of sleepers which I hope they won’t sleep until they retire.
By the way who is Scraps!, sorry I’m new to the blog so please dont mind the new guys 🙂
By the way who is Scraps!
See this post.
woooo scraps welcome back!
Great to see you back, Scraps, it sounds like you’re doing well. The M’s need to win one for the Scrapper!
Welcome back, scraps.
Hey, did anyone see Cordero’s ZiPS projection? He’s now the defacto closer for the ZiPS DMB M’s team.