Two teams have offered Jorge de la Rosa contracts and two more may make proposals within a day, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. The Rockies and Nationals have offered deals and the Pirates, Orioles, Rangers, Brewers and Yankees all have at least some interest in the free agent left-hander, who may sign sooner than expected.
The Rockies are not prepared to offer more than three years, but some other teams are prepared to make four-year commitments, Jim Armstrong of the Denver Post reported last week. Since the Rockies offered De La Rosa arbitration, he will cost other teams a top draft pick in June of 2011.
4 years?! Yikes…
why would someone offer this guy 4 years… i guess the recession is over.
Probably the Yankees, they heard 4 yrs $24MM, and after hearing 5 yrs $150MM it sounded reasonable.
He offers compelling value, but many, like me doubt it…
Still though, I like him on a 3 year deal, 4 years is okay, but he is one of my favorite players/pitchers on the market…I’d love to see him sign with the Orioles/Pirates/Nationals/Astros/Mariners
4 years for De La Rosa? Oh my!
Wouldn’t it make more sense to sign after Lee?
Serious mistake for any team to offer a 4 year deal to a guy like this. People go nuts over what hand he pitches with and his nice K/9 rate. Other than that (career/3 YO Avg) …:
ERA: 5.02 / 4.49
IP (Avg): 164 / 146
WHIP: 1.52 / 1.39
K9: 8.0 / 8.9
BB9: 4.5 / 4.1
Over the last couple of years his FIP and xFIP have been significantly lower than his ERA (expected to some degree pitching in CO). His best year ever was a 3.7 WAR effort. He’s had exactly one other season where his WAR total exceeded 1.7.
I’m sure moving closer to sea level will help. Don’t expect much though – for his career he is just slightly worse at home than on the road. In 2010 he was better at home than on the road.
Predicting his average over the course of 4 years … I’ll go with 140 innings / 4.50 ERA. Those aren’t the kind of numbers you surrender a pick for and then commit 4 years to. I’m just grateful that my team isn’t in on the bidding.
Yeah 4 years, it better not be Milwaukee. I’d think that they would have had their fill of his downside when he first came up. The irony of overpaying him now and losing a draft pick would just be ridiculous. And would the Pirates be looking for him to be a #1 or #2 starter? Just seems very hard to predict his performance anywhere. Anyone can feel free to explain to me what NYY Texas etc. would be thinking in offering him that much / for that long…
I’m a bit skeptical about this as a Pirate fan, as risky as it is though, I would love to see the Pirates sign someone for the heck of signing him
Hey Ben,
I know it’s not just me, but we’re seeing a lot of top free agents go off the board early this season. Ant theories why? I can’t remember the last time seeing so many top guys sign before the Winter Meetings even start. There’s something up this season!
Hmmmm