Ben Sheets needs flexor tendon surgery, according to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle (via Twitter). ESPN.com's Buster Olney suggested Sheets could require the surgery earlier today (Twitter link). The right-hander, who first underwent the operation last year, will presumably miss the rest of the 2010 season.
The A's signed Sheets to a $10MM deal last winter and the 32-year-old responded with a 4.53 ERA, 6.3 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9 in 119.1 innings. Sheets was drawing interest as a trade chip as recently as last week, but he will not be traded in 2010. Even if Sheets recovers from the surgery, finding a guaranteed contract won't be easy.
So…a guy that should have come back on a 1 year/$1MM deal with incentives to push it up to $5MM gets a guaranteed $10MM from the A’s, a team notorious for their low payroll and horrible choices in how to dole out the little money they have and he gives them a .300 win percentage season, a 4.53 ERA and only 2/3’s of a season worth of starts. Awesome. Sounds like a win for the A’s.
The A’s are at .500. Last year they weren’t .500. He has pitched a lot of good games with zero run support. AJ Burnett is 8-8 with a 4.77 ERA. His record could be much, much better. And the A’s have put a team that can compete on the field. The notion that that they’re “notorious for their low payroll and horrible choices in how to dole out the little money they have” is ridiculous. Not many teams has won more games than Oakland since 2000.
What does that have to do with the A’s throwing 10M at a guy coming back from a severe injury? The NYY throw that money around all the time, but not the A’s. it was a crapshoot is all the original poster intended and was percentage wise bound to go bad, like it did, unless it was only way the A’s could find a fair at best starter to go to Oakland and have a hard time believing that. Just not a Beane type move at all with this guy.
Like the swallows returning to Capistrano.
I guess he’ll have to go through this winter what he went through last offseason…Spending the whole winter convincing scouts that he’s able to pitch and have a team take a waiver on him. Man, this guy needs some good health news. Right?
Wow, we will probably never see Sheets return to the pitcher he once was. This is sad news, the guy has guts.
Beane tried to do the same with Sheets as he did with Holliday last year by signing him for the trade deadline. Many people questioned the move on this one and said he would not hold up. They were correct.
Even though this is bad news for the A’s, and he has obviously not earned his 10 million, the leadership and guidance he has given the A’s young pitching staff has been valuable. I hated the deal when Beane made it, but I do see some upside to his being on the team this year. Not 10 million worth, but still better than what Chavez has contributed to this team in 2010 for about the same money.
I agree with this. The $10 million was obviously a mistake, but the entire staff has benefited from Sheets being around. Several of the younger pitchers have commented about his leadership & mentoring. The fact that he was slotted as the staff ace prevented Geren from putting that pressure on one of the youngsters. I know his ERA was poor, but his record might be more tolerable if he wasn’t matched up against the other #1’s in the league for the first month or two of the season.
It’s too bad he’s so frail. You gotta feel for the guy. Good God, did he have a great fastball & curveball for several years. Having said that, I agree his contract was a huge mistake for the A’s. Especially since he’s a guaranteed injury risk.
I wasn’t sure whether the signing of Sheets was to compete in the AL West or to be used at a trade chip right around now. Looks like neither of them actually happened.
It’s amazing how well the A’s have done considering how stupid the Sheets and Crisp signings were. That’s not me talking with the benefit of hindsight. That’s what I said in the off-season.
Sheets on a 1/$7m with incentives on a club that had some payroll flexibility would have made sense. But given his guaranteed contract amount plus the club he signed with you just knew it would end badly.
I’d still take him if it meant getting rid of Oliver Perez and Jeff Francoeur.
And everybody wanted to kill Minaya for not signing him
:O Anyone shocked? Maybe now the DBag won’t get $10m guaranteed from anyone.
Not all of these comments are Beane hatred…mine are not. A mistake signing is just that, not hatred. How could anyone think giving Ben Sheets 10MM was not a risk? I don’t disagree the A’s might have to overpay, but Sheets was asking 10MM from anybody who signed him. The A’s paid his price, but not any more than anyone else would have had to pay. Sheets did not charge Beane more to play in Oakland. Beane rolled dice and it did not work out, plain and simple.
eh, $12 mil got 25 starts out of Sheets/Duchscherer. Unless we would have spent it on figuring out what the hell has been the matter with our training staff for the past decade. I’m fine with the A’s and their 5 years of contention and 5 years of 70 win seasons. Its better than being an Orioles, Royals or Mariners fan.
Wow he just can’t stay healthy…
Can we officially say Sheets is the new Kris Bensen now and nobody is going to ever over pay for him again?