The “Duke Of Hurl” Returns to Oakland

The Oakland A’s bolstered their rotation on Thursday by bringing back one of their own. According to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle , the A’s have signed RHP Justin Duchscherer to a one-year, $2 million contract. Duchscherer can make an additional $3.5 million if he reaches certain incentives.

Good signing by the A’s.

Duchscherer was an All Star in 2008 going 10-8 with a 2.54 ERA and a ridiculous 0.99 WHIP in 22 starts for the A’s. It was the first time in Duchscherer’s major league career he was a full-time starter and it looked like he was going to make a successful transition from reliever to starter.

But 2009 proved to be a disaster of a season for the “Duke of Hurl.”

Duchscherer was experiencing discomfort in his elbow during spring training and eventually had to undergo elbow surgery. He was expected back in late June or early August.

However, after making a couple of rehab starts, Duchscherer was shut down for the season because of a non-baseball related issue. Duchscherer was shut down because he was diagnosed with clinical depression.

Duchscherer is healthy now both physically and mentally. For $2 million plus incentives, this was well worth the risk for the A’s.

The A’s have a very young rotation and Duchscherer should fit in nicely between Trevor Cahill, Brett Anderson, and Dallas Braden.

The A’s have the makings a very good starting rotation and bullpen, but really need to find some offense in order to compete in the much improved AL West.

They recently signed Coco Crisp, but he is not nearly enough to improve an A’s offense that finished ninth in the American League in runs scored. The A’s have been looking at 3B Adrian Beltre recently and he would be a good start in improving the offense.

Duchscherer is a two-time All Star and has a career 3.14 ERA in seven major league seasons with the A’s and Texas Rangers.

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