M’s Sign Tyler Walker
So, the “piece of the puzzle” guy that Zduriencik referred to having an offer out to was not Jerry Hairston, as I guessed, but instead Tyler Walker. The Mariners announced they had signed Walker to a one year deal this afternoon, and while terms were not disclosed, you can bet that it’s for between $1 and $2 million. The relief pitcher market has cratered, so there’s no way Walker is getting more than a modest contract for 2009. (Update: Hickey reports the deal is for $750,000)
Walker actually had a pretty successful season last year, coming back after having Tommy John surgery in 2006 and having barely pitched in 2007. His 8.27 K/9 was the highest of his career, and while he continued to show below average command, he got enough swinging strikes to offset the base on balls. His groundball rate jumped up as well, but over just 226 batters faced, that could easily just be small sample size noise.
Overall, he posted a 4.24 FIP as a fairly high leverage reliever (his gmLI was almost the same as Brad Lidge), and he was worth about .25 wins over a replacement level reliever. Yea, .25 wins. Relievers are just so easy to find that a good performance by one isn’t very tough to come by. So, Walker’s a nice arm, and his strikeout rate and experience in high leverage situations gives him a chance to add some depth to the ‘pen. So, for about 1% of the payroll, it’s a nifty little move. If he ends up taking the closer job, he could do some decent enough work for a few months and be a trade chip at the deadline – it’s that kind of asset building that this organization needs to be in the business of.
However, this makes a crowded pitching staff just that much more full. You can now add Walker to the mix with Aaron Heilman, Roy Corcoran, Miguel Batista, and Mark Lowe as right-handed relief options. Add in Ryan Rowland-Smith, Jose Lugo, Jason Vargas, Justin Thomas, and Cesar Jimenez from the left side and you’ve got 10 arms for six or seven bullpen spots. The M’s just have too many pitchers on the roster right now. Quantity is a good thing, but it doesn’t help if you don’t have room for them all.
Maybe the Yankees would like an arm or two in exchange for Swisher?
Dave- Do you think he has a real shot at closer? He had some success closing for TB and SF.
Do you see them trading off Heilman, Messenger, etc. now that we have another righty? 20 pitchers on the 40 man seems a bit high…is that normal?
I’ll have to admit that I was hoping for a more “sexxy” move, but this seems like a very logical, well thought out “piece” to the team.
Im hoping like everyone else that the signing means that a few arms get moved for an OF. If its Swisher that’s great news and the signing makes more sense in the long run then.
You sir, are a smart man.
We can cross Jimenez and Thomas off the list. They need more time in AAA, I think.
I may be incorrect, but I felt like the Swisher post was more wishful thinking on Dave’s behalf and not actually based in any fact from an inside the M’s thought process standpoint. I’m all for trading pitching (or whatever) to the Yanks for Swisher if he can be had cheaply enough, but I didn’t get the impression that it was something that was being worked on other than in Dave’s head. Am I wrong, Dave?
As for Walker, I like the signing just fine. Anything that keeps Morrow closer to a rotation spot is a good direction as far as I’m concerned.
Actually I was thinking of the Rosenthal story about Swisher being available and almost certainly traded. Not sure what the Yankee needs are right now, but hopefully it’s pitching.
Are we sure this is the move Zdruriencik was referring to? Even if it was, you have to assume he’s working on other things too — whether that involves Hairston or someone else.
One more relief arm that can close is one more reason to keep Morrow in the rotation, and that’s a good thing. As it is Heilman’s apparently going to be agitating to get into the rotation too (Carlos Silva might want to keep those
suckback flare-ups under control).I kind of suspect that when it comes to stockpiling all this pitching, Zduriencik is looking ahead to spring training as an opportunity to throw the pasta against the wall and see what sticks. There are always options for the ones who don’t, whether it’s Tacoma or trades or just outright releases on the guys who didn’t cost much. But I’m sure a guy with a scouting background wants to take a look at what he has, with his own eyes, before making any decisions — and he’d rather be in a position of cutting some excess than scrambling to fill holes.
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Being the fantasy geek that I am, the first thing that I did was look up the Baseball Forecaster’s projection/write-up for Walker. Included in his write-up was “A smart team will see skills rebound & take a shot, but odds for saves or fanalytic value are slim.”
I’m so proud that the Mariners could be this “smart” team. Seriously.
It is nice, isn’t it, having a GM you can trust to not do anything stupid? Not everything is going to work out, but it won’t because of some facepalmingly obvious embarrassment of misevaluation. It’s so much less stressful to spend the entire offseason looking forward to, rather than dreading, news from the front office. This must be what it’s like to be an A’s fan. You know, other than the sucky stadium and the bad hygiene.
If the numbers show him being a good high leverage pitcher why does every San Fran fan that owns a computer say that he is a choke artist? His 23 saves a few years ago was well and good but his 2008 season had the Giants run him out of town.
or — “Bullpen depth is one of the Mariners greatest needs.”
A live arm for less than a mil?
Sold.
Please get Swisher, and I know they can’t dump Silva, but they might be able to dump Batista in that trade.
The Yankees love older pitchers, its all that moxy and gumption.
Any chance Batista gets waived?
I’d love to see them flip Heilman and another arm for an upgrade somewhere… Correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t there murmors right after teh Putz deal of flipping Heilman to somebody? If so, does anyone now (or care to venture) who those other interested parties might have been and what we may conceivably get from them?
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It’s OK having a couple of extra pitchers going into spring training. Inevitably, someone will come up hurt and get put on the DL, and some may still have options left. And as others have suggested, a couple of the pitchers could be traded.
I also think that some of those arms have minor league options. I would guess that Justin Thomas begins the year in Tacoma and if/when he proves to be a better lefty specialist than anyone else, he gets called up.
With Hairston off the market, I’m still hoping for a Juan Uribe deal on the cheap for the 2B/SS backup job.
I think I remember Z saying something along the lines of “sometimes in trades you pick up someone that another team wanted and then you might talk to that other team about a follow-up trade.”
I wonder if he knew that another team wanted Heilman or other parts and was/is hoping to turn those parts into another player.
The M’s only had 4 possible RH relief arms on the 40 man (using Dave’s list above) and two of them might be used as starters. Adding another potential RH power arm for less than $1M was a very schrewd move.
If we all agree that the M’s have too much pitching on the 40 man roster and that some of it may be traded before the season starts, I’d say that Heilman and Batista are probably on the top of the list and that adding a RH arm allows for the flexibility to move them as well.
The Yankees won’t want Heilman. He wore out his welcome with the Mets. The Yankees won’t bring someone in who will get booed the first time he gives up a hit.