Roy Halladay, Phil Hughes Top Mets' List of Inexpensive Free-Agent Pitchers
The New York Mets have plenty of holes to fill this winter, but with the loss of Matt Harvey for the 2014 season, there is an even greater need for starting pitching. This has been overlooked to a degree because of New York’s incredible need for productive offensive players.
Prior to Harvey's injury, general manager Sandy Alderson expressed interest in finding a veteran pitcher for the starting rotation. A hurler with big league experience and the ability to eat-up some innings was preferred.
Now that the 2013 National League All-Star Game starter is on the sidelines until 2015, Alderson needs to fill two rotation spots for next season, reports Adam Rubin of ESPN New York.
Rubin also reports that the one-year, $7.25 million agreement with Chris Young leaves New York with approximately $25 million left to spend this winter.
Finding another outfield bat, an external option for shortstop, a veteran reliever, and two starting pitchers will be tough on that budget.
The Mets currently have Jonathon Niese, Dillon Gee, and Zack Wheeler as certainties for their 2014 rotation. Top prospects Rafael Montero and Noah Syndergaard are waiting in the wings, but they likely won’t be seen until the summer months, at the earliest.
The following free agents should be attractive options for Alderson because they hold three important qualities: big league experience, ability to throw a lot of innings when healthy and can be signed to cost-effective, short-term deals.
All statistics and salary information courtesy of Baseball Reference and FanGraphs.
Roy Halladay
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The former Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies ace hasn’t started 30 games in a season since 2011, and is coming off an injury-shortened 2013.
The right-hander went 4-5 with a 6.82 ERA and 1.47 WHIP in 62 innings of work (13 starts). Jim Salisbury of CSN Philly tweeted in September that Phillies GM Ruben Amaro, Jr. would love to have Halladay back next season, but declined to mention whether he'd be offered a contract.
Jerry Crasnick of ESPN polled 21 baseball executives for a story he published on November 11th, polling them on some of the game’s biggest storylines heading into winter. Crasnick asked these execs which pitcher had the most left in the tank for 2014: Hiroki Kuroda, Tim Hudson, or Halladay.
Just one out of those 21 picked Halladay over the other two hurlers.
Halladay is entering his age-37 season and pitched his fewest innings since 2000, but it’s hard not to count him out for 2014. He has 203 career wins, three 20-win seasons, two Cy Young awards and has led his league in innings-pitched four different times. He has the type of personality that wants to prove everyone wrong.
He’s an attractive option for the Mets because he’s a low-risk, high-reward type of acquisition. He made $20 million in 2013, but will look for an incentive-laden, one-year deal. He needs to prove he still has what it takes to be a productive member of a big-league rotation.
Daisuke Matsuzaka
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Dice-K is a familiar option for the Mets—he signed with New York last August after being released by the Cleveland Indians. While playing for their Triple-A Columbus squad, the Japanese pitcher put together a 5-8 record with a 3.92 ERA and 1.28 WHIP in 103.1 innings pitched.
The start of his Mets career wasn’t pretty. Fans watched Dice-K allow 15 runs on 19 hits and seven walks in his first 12.1 innings-pitched (three starts). However, pitching coach Dan Warthen did a great job of turning Matsuzaka’s performance around.
Over his final four starts, he allowed four earned runs on 13 hits and nine walks. He went 3-0 during that stretch.
Mark Schmetzer of ESPN New York reported in September that Dice-K’s performance over the season’s final month may earn him another contract with New York for 2014.
While he still walked a lot of hitters during his brief stint in Flushing (16 walks allowed in 38.2 innings pitched), he’s a good candidate as a fifth starter.
Sandy Alderson should be interested in Dice-K because he can be brought back on a one-year deal, possibly even a minor league deal with an invite to big league camp.
With prospects like Montero and Syndergaard possibly being ready for the bigs by mid-season, the Mets need a pitcher to stay healthy and pitch until one of these two is ready to get promoted. If Dice-K pitches well, he can be a valuable trade chip. If not, the team could release him without many financial repercussions.
Roberto Hernandez
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Roberto Hernandez is reentering the free-agent market after earning $3.2 million with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2013. After appearing in only three games and throwing 14.1 innings in 2012, Hernandez went 6-13 with a 4.89 ERA and 1.34 WHIP in 151 innings.
He broke in with the Cleveland Indians back in 2006, proceeding to go 1-10 with a 5.42 ERA. The predominantly ground-ball pitcher was an integral part of the '07 Indians team that lost to the Red Sox in the ALCS. He put together a 19-8 record with a 3.06 ERA and 1.21 WHIP in 215 innings.
Since then, it’s been hard for him to recapture the magic of that season. He posted a 3.77 ERA and won 13 games for the Tribe in 2010, but that’s been the most success he’s had since his breakout campaign in ’07.
While his statistics in Tampa last season don’t jump off the page, it was just the third time in his eight-year big league career that his season ERA was under 5.00.
Entering his age-33 season, he could be in the market for another one-year deal to perform for a more lucrative deal next winter. The one of the biggest question about Hernandez is whether or not he can handle a big market like New York.
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John Lannan
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John Lannan is a back-end of the rotation pitcher I wished the Mets pursued last winter. New York has a lot of depth throughout the organization when it comes to starting pitching. However, Steven Matz and Darin Gorski are the only notable southpaw prospects currently able to sniff the big leagues within the next few seasons.
He made $2.5 million with the Philadelphia Phillies last season before the organization outrighted him to the minor leagues in the middle of October, according to MLB Trade Rumors. The southpaw soon decided to elect free agency, and he’s been looking for a job ever since.
Lannan is a pitcher that throws to contact—he’s allowed 9.5 hits per nine innings and has struck out 4.7 hitters per nine innings over the course of his seven-year big league career. According to MLB Park Factors on ESPN, it hasn't helped Lannan that he's been pitching in hitter-friendly stadiums.
Citizens Bank Park has always been known as a hitter-friendly venue, and ranked sixth-best in 2013. Nationals Park came in at 13th.
Citi Field ranked 29th out of the 30 big league parks on this list. Only Petco Park in San Diego statistically favored pitchers more. A pitcher like Lannan could find success at Citi with bigger dimensions and solid outfield defenders such as Juan Lagares and Chris Young behind him.
Given his recent history, Alderson could possibly snatch the 29-year-old Long Beach, New York native on a minor league deal.
Paul Maholm
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Another ground ball pitcher, Paul Maholm will be experiencing free agency for the second time as a big leaguer. Unfortunately for him, it probably won’t be much different than his first experience.
Despite going 6-14 for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2011, he put together a solid 3.66 ERA and 1.29 WHIP in 162.1 innings pitched. Tim Dierkes of MLB Trade Rumors noted that Maholm had to wait until January that winter to get a contract from the Chicago Cubs. Even then, it was just a one-year deal, including a team option.
He followed that season with the best overall year of his career, splitting time with the Cubs and Atlanta Braves (13-11 record, 3.67 ERA, 1.22 WHIP in 189 innings pitched). The Braves exercised the option for 2013, and Maholm had a year he wished he didn’t prior to entering free agency.
The soft-tossing lefty went 10-11 with a 4.41 ERA and 1.41 WHIP in 153 innings pitched. Dierkes predicts he’ll end up with a deal worth one year for approximately $7 million. The longer he waits for a deal, the more his potential 2014 salary will go down, and play right into Alderson’s hands.
Phil Hughes
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Unlike some of the other pitchers profiled here, Hughes is predominantly a fly ball pitcher. He’s allowed fly balls 46 percent of the time during his seven-year career with the New York Yankees.
ESPN’s Park Factors for 2013 list Yankee Stadium as the ninth-best stadium for home run hitters, allowing 1.128 homers per game. That won’t spell success for many fly ball pitchers, and Hughes is a product of that.
Since the new Yankee Stadium opened in 2009, Hughes has posted a season ERA under 5.00 as a starter just twice. In 2013, the right-hander went 4-14 with a 5.19 ERA and 1.46 WHIP in 145.2 innings pitched.
Out of all the options listed here, Hughes should be at the top of Alderson’s wish-list. He’s probably the only player out of these five that could legitimately earn a multi-year deal, and will get pursued aggressively by multiple teams.
He’s 28-years-old, has been in the big leagues for seven years, has a playoff experience (including a World Series ring), and knows what to expect from a big media market like New York. The Mets should be all over this guy, as he could be a big piece of their rotation.
If he succeeds in the pitcher-friendly confines of Citi Field, he could also end up being a valuable trade piece for Alderson if the organization wants to make room for their younger hurlers.
The Mets don’t have a lot of money left to fill the holes in their rotation, but there are a number of inexpensive options to consider.
To keep up with Matt and chat baseball, follow him on Twitter: @mmusico8
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