The Mariners signed Manny Delcarmen to a minor league contract with an invitation to Spring Training according to the team. He is represented by Jim Masteralexis and can remain under Seattle's control as arbitration eligible player in 2012.
Delcarmen, 29 later this month, posted a 4.99 ERA, 6.5 K/9, 5.5 BB/9, 1.4 HR/9, and 45.0% groundball rate for the Red Sox and Rockies in 2010. He battled back soreness and spent two weeks on the disabled list with a forearm strain, the first DL stint of his career. The Mariners will undoubtedly hope he turns back into the Delcarmen of old, the guy that struck out 8.6 batters per nine innings while walking just 3.4 per nine with impressive ground ball rates in 2007 and 2008.
The Rockies chose not to tender Delcarmen a contract in December after he earned $905K in 2010, prompting several clubs (including the Rays) to show interest in him this winter.
This is a really, really good, low risk signing. Nice.
I was thinking the same. Although I’m a little surprised it was just a minor league contract. I think he stands a good chance at making their bullpen, however, so that could be a moot point when all is said and done.
Even if he is destined for the camp breaking with the major league club, the M’s took advantage of his low value and did the right thing. If they had signed him to a Major League deal, it wouldn’t have been as good of a deal in my opinion.
However, I do think he has a good shot at making the team, but if he doesn’t, it makes barely a difference in the M’s future and current plans.
thank god your back again we would of been screwed if you weren’t here to tell us this
I’m not back
Well, they needed him! Good move by both sides.
Actually quite happy about this, hard to imagine he doesn’t make the club at some point this season.
Good luck MDC. Wish you the best.
Great guy. I hope he can find the success he had during his Red Sox prime out in Seattle. The M’s could strike gold and get a really nice setup man for basically nothing out of this, too.
Safeco’s a good park for him, his HR rate was inflated last year. Now if he could just stop walking as many guys.
Good signing.
Its kind of sad when an average reliever cant even get an MLB deal from the MARINERS!!
GOSH, RIGHT? Guys with BB/9 rates almost equivalent to their K/9 rates and a 13.1% HR/FB ratio should get guaranteed deals from ANY team!
Good signing for the Mariners.
Did the Red Sox have any interest in bring him back (especially on a Minor League contract)?
Not really. Theo has about 15 guys battling for the last two bullpen spots so we’re good.
Think MDC is out of options also.. So the M’s going to get 1 free recall on him and then have to expose him to waivers themselves if they want to keep him around in the system.
More or less.
To make the 25-man roster out of spring training or even later in the season if he doesn’t make the team out of spring training, the M’s would have to purchase Delcarmen’s contract(this is true of anyone on a minor-league contract with any of the teams) and add him to their 40-man roster(and make an accompanying move to remove someone else from the 40-man, if necessary.)
If he is ineffective and they don’t want to keep him on the 25-man, and since he is out of options, they would have to pass him through waivers to send him outright to the minors. They could also pass him through waivers and grant him his unconditional release as well, or perhaps even trade him if they feel he has some value.
At any rate, if/when he does make the team, I see him being more of a 6th or 7th inning pitcher, since the M’s have better options for the 8th inning(possibly Dan Cortes or even Chris Ray, at least while Aardma is injured and League is the closer to start the year.)
But yeah, a good signing. 🙂
I wonder if for the first time ever, with incentives, if Manny can actually get Manny Money.
Best of luck to you Manny.
another ex-redsox that could end up being our closer if Aardsma is delt
and league’s arm falls off?
Yeah, rzepczynski’s right. Delcarmen will be lower on the depth chart, even with Aardsma on the DL to start the year(and word is that he may be ready to return by mid-to-late April, which is good news.)
After League, the M’s will have Dan Cortes, Chris Ray(on a minor league deal as well, but has good enough stuff still that I think he makes the team quite easily), and possibly Josh Lueke all as better closer options if Aardsma and League or unavailable.
If Delcarmen becomes the closer, it will quite possibly be a Sign of the Apocalypse! 😉
He’ll be on the DL by June.
Manny had a 99 mph fastball and back breaking curve when he came up with the Sox. He had come down to 94-95 mph when the Sox dealt him. I thought he had become gun-shy and needed a change of scenery. He still has a good arm. Maybe someone can get him straightened out. It’s a good signing for the Mariners. I hope Manny gets it going again.
good luck kid from the cruz family
The Yankees should have taken a flier on this guy, he had some success in the past.
I loved Del Carmen but his history is hot and cold. It was routinely acknowledged that Del Carmen had the best stuff of any Redsox pitcher. Sometimes he looked bored and uninterested. very frustrating to watch two days in a row. One day= lights out. Next day? who put out the lights? Good luck Manny..you were always a great human being and a classy teammate.
Last time the Mariners took a Red Sox reliever it turned out pretty good, just trade him before Aardsma x2 happens.