The Orioles officially declined their $1.2MM club option on lefty Mark Hendrickson, according to a team press release. They'll pay a $200K buyout instead. The move was widely expected.
Hendrickson, a 6'9" southpaw, turned 36 in June. This year he posted a 5.26 ERA, 6.6 K/9, 2.4 BB/9, 1.1 HR/9, and 42.9% groundball rate in 75.3 innings. He deserved an ERA more like 4.18, according to Baseball Prospectus' SIERA stat. Hendrickson's FanGraphs splits show he's been plenty effective against left-handed batters over the past few years.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise for anyone.
I could not stand to watch this guy pitch. The Orioles should now resign Izturis for 1 year to play SS until Manny is ready. Then sign Rich Hill. I really think he would do good in the number 5 spot with a new pitching coach. He has a great curve ball too and if doesn’t do good we just get rid of him or send him to the minors.
“Then sign Rich Hill”: That’s a joke, right?
Then the Orioles should make a run at Dunn, put him at 1B for 1 year and move him to DH next year to make room for Gonzo in 2012. Sign Russell Branyan for 1 year to play DH, he would be great at Camden Yards. Put Scott in LF. Trade Pie and Tillman to the DBack for Reynolds.
O and sign Tsuyoshi Wada from Japan to a 2-3 year deal.
Line Up: 1: Roberts 2B 2: Markakis RF 3: Scott LF 4: Dunn 1B 5: Reynolds 3B
6: Branyan DH 7: Wieters C 8: Jones CF 9: Izturis SS
Rotation 1: Guthrie 2: Wada 3: Matusz 4: Bergessen 5: Hill/ Arrieta
Stovin you have the dumbest ideas on what the Orioles should do I ever seen.
They arent going to go after Reynolds that’s for sure.
Rich Hill is injured every season so why would we bring in a unreliable pitcher like him?
not only does he have injury problems, he hasn’t thrown a strike in three years.
Hendrickson’s numbers in relief were quite good last year (FIP around 3.20) and throughout his career, so I was somewhat surprised he performed so poorly this year. but whatever, it wasn’t a big waste of money and in the end we needed all the arms we could get with Berken, Johnson, Gonzalez, Uehara all getting injured.