The Rockies are always looking to add pitching depth, and today the team will internally discuss whether to pursue Dontrelle Willis according to Troy Renck of The Denver Post. The Phillies released the southpaw yesterday.
“It’s tough at this point in camp, but we will take a look at it,” said GM Dan O’Dowd.
Colorado has left-handed relievers Rex Brothers and Matt Reynolds on the 40-man roster, but it should only take a minor league contract to land Willis at this point. The 30-year-old has held lefty batters to a .178/.245/.248 batting line with a 5.0 K/BB ratio in 143 plate appearances over the last two seasons. Yesterday we heard that the Marlins were unlikely to have interest in bringing their former ace back.
I’m not sure what they saw from his time in Philly, but hey, if they wanna ship him in for pennies and see what happens, it’s their time their wasting, not mine.
It’s the old Jeff weaver effect. He must be showing some sort of potential still cus teams keep signing him
He’d fit in Colorado if he switched to a position player…
I agree with Tigerfan93, he should try to come back as a postion player. This guy can hit.
A left handed pitcher is still the best profession in the world. It doesn’t matter how bad you suck, you will keep getting offers until you decide to retire or your arm falls off, whatever comes first.
Dontrelle Willis never played for the Cubs. He was in their system, but was traded before he ever made an appearance for the big-league club. His success all came with the Marlins.
I wouldn’t say it was one fluke season, either. While he was very good and maybe fluky good in 2005, he was an average or above-average pitcher from 2003-2006 and ate over 200 innings on average in that period, even factoring in a meager 160 inning showing in his debut season of 2003.
Given how little he is likely to cost, if you can get him back to being an average starting pitcher he would have a strong surplus value. There’s also value to trying him as a lefty specialist.
I don’t think being even an average major-league pitcher for four seasons is dumb luck, so it’s no surprise that a lot of teams take a chance at seeing if they can get him back to that level. For the cost, why not?
He wasn’t a huge dissapointment last year in Cincy. His Win-Loss was terrible, but you can’t really accurately grade a pitcher on W-L. He was an average #5 pitcher with a good bat for a pitcher, which is all you can really expect out of him nowadays.