4:21pm: Heilman will get a $2MM salary, tweets Jack Magruder of FOXSportsArizona.com.
1:07pm: The Diamondbacks agreed to re-sign free agent pitcher Aaron Heilman, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (on Twitter). Heilman declined the D'Backs offer of arbitration earlier in the offseason after making $2.15MM last year.
The right-hander will get the chance to join some combination of Joe Saunders, Ian Kennedy, Daniel Hudson, Zach Duke and Barry Enright in the team's rotation. The D'Backs expressed interest in adding rotation depth earlier in the month, though it appeared then that any newcomers would arrive on minor league deals.
Heilman posted a 4.50 ERA with 6.9 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9 in 72 innings out of the bullpen for the D'Backs last year. The 32-year-old last started a game for the 2005 Mets, but he broke in as a starter in 2003.
Couldn’t be any worse as a starter than he was a reliever.
WhenMattstairsisking. I would say this why was he put in the pen for the Mets because he stunk. so to ask that is funny I am not getting on you but i laugh when i hear even after all these years he does not get it. He stinks.
Hit the “reply” button to reply to a specific person. That’s what it’s there for.
Also re-read your comment before you post.
He was a decent reliever. I guess he’ll compete with Enright, Duke, and Parker
he blew monkey balls as a reliever in new york.
4 orgainzations told him the same from the Mets to Seattle to the Cubs then the Diamondbacks.
He didn’t stink. If he stunk, we wouldn’t have kept throwing him out there for 70 IP in high pressure situations. He should have been starting from the beginning. Since when are Met assessments so reliable? Reyes at 2B? Murphy in LF? Lima as SP over Heilman? C’mon.
It’s not that, he really did stink as a Met. I don’t know how he did with his other teams, but as a Met he was absolutely dreadful.
take my word for it when he came in to pitch grown men would cry as i stated above he blew monkey balls no make that gorilla nuts. he is awful. every team makes personnel mistakes. my mets included.
Oh well, 2011 is a new season. We’ll see if Aaron can contribute. No Dback pitcher will stick around as long as some of the losers we had last year. They will be better or they’ll be gone. We won’t tolerate another performance like 2010 in AZ.
Compared to the rest of the D’Backs staff he was the ace. Now that’s saying something
That is one ugly rotation.
I think it looks pretty good. I mean it’s not like it’s total crap like that Philidelphia rotation. Now that’s filthy.
You have to know Heilman’s history, what Mets did to ruin a career that should have been as starter like he was drafted in first round. After doing so, they radically altered his arm slot, made him pitch like that for years in minors and through most of his major league starts. He finally switched back to his natural arm slot, had a few good games as starter but then Mets needed reliever and is how he ended up ih the pen. His self-identity is that of starter and now finally, gets chance..
The Arizona heat is getting to towers’ head again.
I wonder what his jersey number will be.
Nahh, I’m thinking that if Duke struggles (probably not, or hope not), Heilman will get a chance.