The Rangers avoided arbitration with reliever Mark Lowe, reports MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan. Lowe, arbitration eligible for the second time, will earn $1.2MM in 2011 with a potential $100K in incentives. The 27-year-old received a $5K raise after missing most of the season due to back surgery. He came to the Rangers while on the disabled list in the July Cliff Lee trade.
Three other arbitration eligible players have also already signed in advance of Thursday's non-tender deadline: Scott Proctor, Wil Ledezma, and Jarrod Saltalamacchia.
1.2 million? I guess the Rangers are rewarding him for his awesome playoff performance
I hear yah man, that was god aweful and so painful to watch. I don’t know what Washington was thinking there, he was not ready to be pitching again.
Those terrible playoff performances looked an awful lot like his regular season performances in Seatown. Lowe’s got the stuff yet finds ways to be inimitably hittable. Still, I can understand why the Rangers made the investment.
Probably because in 2009, he had a value of $5.5 mil to the Mariners and then got hurt for nearly all of 2010. His problem isn’t being “inimitably hittable,” it’s giving up too many walks and being injury prone. Even so, at $1.2 mil, if he stays healthy, he has a decent chance of making more of an impact than a free agent that would cost $4-5 mil would.
He did indeed have a nice season in 2009, finally delivering on his promise. No doubt the Rangers are hoping for that kind of upside or more. And his health has been a major concern throughout his big league career.
Yet… for a guy with his fastball, slider, change combo– 98 mph heat and two off-speed pitches that flash plus– he gets hit hard and strikes out less than one might imagine he would. It’s not just the walks that get him. Do you watch a lot of Mariner games?
Lowe tried. Give the man some slack. Let’s see him go into Spring training healthy and see what’s he got. I like the move.