The Orioles have agreed to sign Mark Hendrickson to a minor league deal with an invitation to Spring Training, according to Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun (Twitter links). Hendrickson had an offer from the Rockies, but chose to return to Baltimore, where he'll compete to be a situational left-hander and long reliever. Dan Connolly of the Sun reports that the deal is worth about $900K if Hendrickson makes the team (Twitter link).
The 36-year-old logged 75 1/3 innings for the Orioles last year, posting a 5.26 ERA with 6.6 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9. He has started at least one game in every season since 2002, but he's primarily a reliever at this point. Hendrickson has held left-handed hitters to a .702 OPS in his career.
The Rays and Orioles also expressed interest in Hendrickson earlier in the offseason. Hendrickson, who played for four NBA teams before focusing on baseball, is now with his fifth MLB club.
what a offseason for the O’s!!
I like it. he’s actually been fairly good coming out of the pen. during his last 5 seasons:
2006: 0.84 ERA, 10.2 IP
2007: 3.69 ERA, 46.1 IP
2008: 3.03 ERA, 32.2 IP
2009: 3.44 ERA, 55 IP
2010: 5.25 ERA, 70.1 IP
so yeah, last year was pretty bad. but in general, he gets a bad rap because of his bad numbers as a starter.
Look at his numbers vs lefties. He is a very solid LOOGY, which is (hopefully) only what they need him for. His numbers are skewed to the awful side because in recent years they’ve used him as a starter and vs righties.
If you keep him as a LOOGY, he can be a very valuable commodity.
I guess if you need an extra arm for spring training and in case of some injury but he’s not worth a roster spot in any event.
The O’s have both of the two most recent “Top Stories”.
Let’s go for the trifecta: “Orioles Agree To Sign Vladimir Guerrero”
They could always trade him to the Heat for cash.
his babip was at a career high level last season… he actually decreased his walk rate, decreased his hr/9 rate and increased his strikeout rate from 2009 to 2010. It seems like luck was the biggest factor in his ERA being 5+ instead of 4+
The ERA is deceiving. He threw 70+innings in 52 games. He didn’t give up a run in 32 of those games. He had three 1/3 inning appearances where he gave up 3 or 4 runs in 1/3 inning. After the first game in May, his ERA jumped from 3.0 to over 6. a situational releiver has a real hard time bringing that number down after that. Brought that down to 4.65 in early June, had another one of those 4 run 1/3 inning fiascos against the yankees and it ballooned to over 6 again. From that point on until Sept.1st, in 17 games and 27 innings he gave up a TOTAL of 11 runs. in the 13 of those appearances where he threw in relief, ranging from 1/3 to 2.2 innings, ZERO EARNED RUNS. had his era right around 5. He proceeded to throw 11 innings, in 10 games over the next month, gave up three runs, struck out 11 and walked one. His ERA was 4.8 on October 1st.
Then he came in for 1/3 inning last game of the year and had another 1/3 inning 4 run deal, and his ERA shot to over 5 for the season. He doesn’t pitch that last game, he ends up sub 5.
Take those three bad outings out (which were spread out over the course of the year pretty well) and his ERA is 3.99 on the nose.
Plus, he can spot start. Good pick up for the O’s.
Hendrickson sucks as a starter, but was really good coming out of the pen, i think if they leave him in the pen and don’t have him making spot starts all year long this will be a good deal. Glad to see him back
I don’t see him making any spot starts unless at least 3 of the starters severely struggle/go down with injuries (let’s keep our fingers crossed).
I like the depth of starting pitching available, especially after the signing of Duchscherer. Having guys like Tillman and Britton waiting in the minors is definitely a good thing, and even Jason Burken would be a candidate to start some games if needed. He’s shed 30 lbs. this offseason so hopefully that translates to even better performance out of him.