The Padres are close to a deal with Chad Qualls, according to Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports (Twitter links). The sides are nearing a one-year deal worth about $2MM that includes a club option for 2012, Morosi reports. Hendricks Sports represents Qualls.
Qualls, who drew interest from at least six teams this offseason, was looking for a one-year deal to rebuild his value, according to ESPN.com's Buster Olney. He posted a 7.32 ERA with 7.5 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9 for the Rays and D'Backs last year. The 32-year-old allowed 85 hits in 59 innings, but his ground ball rate was typically high (55%) and defense independent pitching stats like FIP and xFIP suggest Qualls should have had an ERA closer to 4.00.
When Padres GM Jed Hoyer listed his remaining offseason priorities earlier in the week, he said he had some interest in adding a reliever, a backup catcher and a left-handed hitter. The Padres have traded away many relievers this offseason, so the team's bullpen – a major strength in 2010 – is not as deep as it was a year ago. Adding Qualls would help offset the loss of Adam Russell, Cesar Ramos, Ryan Webb and Edward Mujica.
Since the Rays offered Qualls arbitration, they would obtain a supplementary first round pick for losing the Type B free agent. However, it would not cost the Padres anything to sign him.
Restock the Pen again are they?
Even though they have a shoestring budget and had to get rid of their best player due to financial problems, I have to admire how busy of an offseason they’ve had so far. They were able to address so many needs and Qualls is the kind of guy who had one off year and could really bounce back in San Diego. I doubt they will be a 90 win team again, but it says a lot that they are trying hard to put together the best possible team for this season given what they have to work with. It might be fourth down, but they sure as hell aren’t punting.
Dang. Wanted him in Minny.
I am sure thats the Padres plan too. In the middle of June or there about.
Given Bill Smith’s track record you’re guaranteed one of our Top 10 Prospects. :-/
Ben Revere please
Hell I would be happy with a low level arm with upside to work through the system with Sampson/Lollis/Portillo someone like Pugh would be a nice fit. But yeah, I see this signing as simply depth and future trade bait.
Nice! Called this one a couple days ago. I was kind of surprised nobody else mentioned his name, speculated a possible signing in correlation with the Padres.
My comments regarding him being a potential fit below on the piece, “Padres Could Add Reliever, Catcher, Bat:” MLB Rumors – MLBTradeRumors.com 2 days ago
“Chad Qualls could be a good fit. What a perfect place for Qualls to regain his value in a non closer role. If he does well, the Padres would have insurance and could be more inclined to deal Bell at the deadline. Bell, could easily go regardless.”
I really like this acquisition a lot.
Good, we didn’t resign him.
It would be a great signing–one I thought for sure Alderson would make.
Yeah i thought so too. Shame shame METS
Probably have a 3.00 era in Petco!
This is almost as hilarious as Fred Lewis leading off in Cincy. WOOOOO PADS PEN IMPLOSION! Heath Bell just lost about 8 saves due to this pickup. Awesome.
what are you talking about? Do you really expect him to have a 400 BABIP in SD and a 53% LOB rate?
I don’t know what his BABIP was last year – guilty as charged. However, didn’t you watch him last year? You can’t tell me you weren’t disappointed when you found out he was traded out of the NL West.
He had a super inflated HR/9, thats sure to come down in Petco.
He is due to progress to the mean.
He did have a super inflated HR/9. But he also had a super high fastball-down-the-middle/9 last year too. Possibly related.
Braaaaaak. Wrong answer but thanks for playing.
Qualls was a victim of bad infield Defense in Arizona which is amply evidenced by his FIP – 4.26 and xFIP – 3.81 and BABIP – .434.
In Arizona it was his fastball that was being hit, but not in necessarily for home runs and not in Tampa at all. That would have been the hanging slider getting crushed in Tampa. In fact for the year of the 7 home runs he gave up, 5 were off sliders. The bigger mystery is why the Dbacks asked him to stop throwing his cutter, curveball and change up completely. Petco will certainly help his performance. Throwing more than 2 pitches will as well.
Sorry to be Joe Morgan here, but a couple things:
I was under the impression that BABIP was a measure of “luck”, not bad infield defense.
Also, “bad infield defense” doesn’t give up home runs at rate of 1.2 per 9 innings, as was his rate in Arizona.
Also, why in the world would I care about his stats in Tampa? The Junior Circuit is, well, the Junior Circuit.
Sorry to be Joe Morgan here, but a couple things:
I was under the impression that BABIP was a measure of “luck”, not bad infield defense.
Also, “bad infield defense” doesn’t give up home runs at rate of 1.2 per 9 innings, as was his rate in Arizona.
Also, why in the world would I care about his stats in Tampa? The Junior Circuit is, well, the Junior Circuit.
How was his HR/9 super inflated? It was 1.1 which isn’t much different than his career 0.9. What does stick out is his super inflated BABIP and BB/9. I do think he’ll bounce back though. He was unlucky and Petco is a much better place for a pitcher than Chase.
All the numbers suggest he was just crazy unlucky last year, and 2010 was the outlier
baseball-reference.com/pl…uallch01.shtml
He was pretty good and consistent save last year
I like the small risk
He has a BABIP of 399 last year and a LOB percentage of 53%, chances are BABIP goes significantly lower into 330s at worst and the LOB % goes a lot higher
Bill James predicts: 73 Games, 61 IP, 7.38 K/9, 2.51 BB/9, 318 babip (should be lower when you factor in petco), 3.84 ERA, 3.7 FIP
His FIP was in low 4s I believe last year which shows just how unlucky he was
Great points Phillip, I would agree!
CL: Heath Bell
SU: Luke Gregerson
SU: Mike Adams
MI: Chad Qualls
MI: Ernie Frieri
LR: Dustin Mosely
LS: Joe Thatcher
gregerson is not setting up, adams will continue to SU in 8th
But they are both setup men
Teams can have two setup men.
I would have prefered a lefty, but this isn’t all that bad. He’s bound to get better with San Diego. Not just the ball park, but being able to work with Balsley will definately help him as well. The pen looks okay after all of the moves. Go Padres.
When comparing this signing with the release of Mujica and others, I think the Padres have come out on the better side of the trades. Ol’ Jed is really doing well. Keep it up Jed!!
A decent move by Jed to add some depth in the bullpen. He’ll be a middle relief guy with Frieri (who’s pretty darn good) and probably come in when we’re down in games
Qualls must have some racy photos or something on Moorad and Byrnes, because when they were here (AZ) they brought in Qualls and he absolutely sucked. Have fun with those 2 clowns Padres fans! (Moorad and Byrnes)
I honestly would think that with the Padres’ budget limitations, they would find something better to spend $2MM on than Chad Qualls.
He’s had his ups and downs, certainly, but even after all the trades this offseason, I can’t imagine that they expect to get .3 WAR out of him over an in-house option. You can’t sneeze in Petco without hitting a weirdly good middle reliever.
I’m so sick of hearing WAR as the only argument. Mariano Rivera only had a 1.7 WAR. You probably wouldn’t want him either huh? That’s hardly the end all be all statistic to rate the value of a relief pitcher or any player for that matter and you’re only looking at last year which was a terrible year. Ignore his BABIP and all of his peripherals. Ignore the fact that he’s moving out of a major hitters park, the beast that is the AL East, and moving to an extreme pitchers park. Qualls was a very good set up man before last year and his stats suggest he’ll return to form if he stays healthy.
Only argument? Did you miss the parts where I talked about the Padres bullpen depth and payroll limitations.
When evaluating a contract, you need to look at the cost of the contract relative to what’s available in your in-house options… I’ll give you hint, the Padres’ biggest problem ISN’T their bullpen. With Luke Gregerson, Mike Adams, and Heath Bell lined up for innings 7-9, and a good starting rotation in front of them, spending $2 million on a miscast closer who’s already been slapped around by the division isn’t really the best investment. 1 WAR on the free agent market is currently argued to cost in the neighborhood of $4.5 million. If you subtract the league minimum from Qualls’ contract, if he provides .3 WAR over the worst projected starter in the Padres’ bullpen, he’s likely to have been worth the investment.
Qualls might provide that, but the money would probably be better spent on a hitter poised for a rebound season. The Padres’ don’t lack for pitching; it’s offense that they’re short of.
Oh, and given that Qualls made 43 of his 70 pitching appearances for the Diamondbacks – solidly 60% of his work – and that he actually pitched considerably better for the Rays (save for his K/9, despite an improved K/BB), raving about the AL East doesn’t really hold water.
Easy man, easy. I know what you are saying about adding offense to the Padres but look at whats out there. Its not worth the roster spot for them nor the money to invest in any of the hitters on the market unless you count a first baseman/DH type. Qualls had his problems last year, thats for sure, but at the same time WAR isn’t the best way to value a reliever. Take time to breathe and think about value for a second not only as a player for the Padres but to the organization. If Qualls rebounds this season and post above average numbers then his trade value goes up, and relievers are almost always in demand during the trade deadline, thats the biggest prize in building bullpen depth.
Say the Padres have Poreda/Scribner/Lara/Oland (or one of the other many relief arms in the system) ready midseason, then they can trade Qualls for value to a time in contention without any real loss to the pen. But its much less likely to be able to flip a first baseman/DH type at the deadline unless they are really hammering the ball, but that would weaken the club unless they really believed that Blanks or Rizzo would come in and hit near the same. Relievers are easier to replace, and their value to a contenting team is usually greater at the deadline. The Padres are looking to build over the long term and this can help with that.
His trade value’s never going to be that high, though, not as a pending free agent.
A reliever like Qualls probably isn’t going to be worth more than a B- prospect or two, even at the trade deadline, especially given that the other team will be picking up the last $800,000 or so.
If I was the Padres, I’d save that money for midseason moves or waiver claims; that flexibility is probably worth more to the team than a veteran middle reliever.
I couldn’t agree more. Too many people on this site “watch” games through stats on there computer screens, instead of watching them on a TV. When I watch a game, if a guy makes the routine plays and gets a hit or so a game, he’s a good player. As for pitchers, if they give up runs when there team is already down by 6, I’m okay with that, but in a 1 run game as long as there gettting outs, I’d take him in my pen. I realize that these new ways of judging talent are important to some, but I wish I didn’t have to read about it all the time.
Thank goodness the rays didn’t resign him. This guy is a horrible pitcher.
Thank goodness the rays didn’t resign him. This guy is a horrible pitcher.
Now it’s the D’Backs turn to destroy him
Now it’s the D’Backs turn to destroy him
He was solid til last year.
What happened?
I think he had surgery on his knee and missed most of the 2009 season.
I think he had surgery on his knee and missed most of the 2009 season.
I think he had surgery on his knee and missed most of the 2009 season.
I think he had surgery on his knee and missed most of the 2009 season.