The Royals signed Jeff Suppan to a minor league deal, reports MLB.com's Dick Kaegel. The 36-year-old righty will report to Triple-A Omaha. Suppan was a workhorse for the 1999-2002 Royals, averaging 33 starts per year. He later moved on to the Pirates, Red Sox, Cardinals, and Brewers, most recently parting ways with the Giants last week after signing a minor league deal.
Suppan was drafted by the Red Sox in '93, joining the Diamondbacks in '97 as the third overall pick in the expansion draft. He was dealt to the Royals late in the '98 season as part of a three-way trade, and by 2000 he earned the Opening Day nod. Though he earned a temporary bullpen demotion in July of that year, Suppan was still named the team's pitcher of the year after the season. He also snagged a two-year deal and the Opening Day assignments in '01 and '02. The Royals non-tendered Suppan after the '02 season.
More recently, Suppan posted a 5.06 ERA, 4.5 K/9, 3.3 BB/9, 1.2 HR/9, and 40.3% groundball rate for the Brewers and Cardinals in 2010. Milwaukee released him in June of last year with about $10MM remaining on a contract signed in December of '06. With serious rotation uncertainty for 2011, the Royals are a good fit for Suppan as he looks for big league starts.
How does this signing make sense?
In the same way any minor league deal makes sense.
As far as I can tell, it only makes sense because Gil Meche retired after the Royals traded Zach Greinke.
If Suppan pitches for the Royals this year, he owes the Meche family a Christmas ham.
And then they break out the Celebration Ham!
After going 3-0 they had to do something to save the #1 draft pick, I mean season.
Thank you KC! I have been just waiting for the update that he had re-signed with the Cardinals. This should at least keep us free until the Royals release him in June.
Once again, blocking the prospects.
Who is he blocking? Nobody. He’s going to be a last-ditch insurance policy and give Omaha a 5th starter once Mazzaro gets called up… much ado about nothing.
Actually this was an excellent signing. He could be a great mentor.
Manager: “Ok, guys, watch this guy pitch.”
Players: “This guy is horrible!”
Manager: “Exactly, I’m showing you guys what NOT to do.”
i loled
Ned Yost says that there are pitchers in Omaha one phone call away from the major leagues. Now it’s one phone call and Suppan away from the MLB roster. More of the same–roadblocks for the prospects.
Ned Yost, himself, said that pitchers in Omaha pitched well enough to make the roster.
Except, you know, Suppan hasn’t pitched in Omaha yet, so applying what Yost said in the past to a person who wasn’t on the team is asinine in the least.
Let me guess…you took the Royals roster and turned it into a winning franchise in three weeks on MLB: The Show right? I’m sure you’re a genius…but there is no need to rush the starters to the majors. This team isn’t going to win this year, and we don’t want service time starting on all these guys before they’re collectively ready. Remember that we’re only going to have most of these players for a few years before they hit free agency. Bringing up the rookie starters now lets them get away a year earlier and might help the Royals only lose 85 instead of 90 – 95. Just be patient.
Can’t pitch in the AL.
I think this is one guy we don’t have to worry about the NL-AL switch. He is going to be bad wherever he pitches.
prolly can’t pitch in the PCL either
The only way I can wrap my head around this is to figure that KC decided it needed an additional arm for depth at AAA. That is, although there are probably one or two arms they might feel comfortable promoting in a pinch, it might not work out for those guys to be on sufficient rest when the big league team needs them. So it’s not a terrible thing to have other options.
That’s something we forget sometimes: just because there is a worthwhile kid waiting at AAA, that doesn’t mean he’s going to be able to start on one or two days’ rest if the big club needs an arm in a hurry.
I would also imagine the Suppan signing means they are not interested in pushing any guys from AA up into the AAA rotation just yet.
It’s a depth signing, nothing more. It’s highly unlikely he even sees the majors this year, barring a sudden string of injuries and even poorer performance by the major league rotation than expected. Relax, it’s not like many of the starter prospects are ready yet anyway.
The Lazarus of baseball. Keeps coming back over and over.
How does he keep getting jobs? He’s HORRIBLE.
Fans wish he would get hurt, some GMs say “hey, he can’t get hurt!”
He may not be the greatest talent, but he could be a great presence on a young team. He was a very big part of the clubhouse in st. Louis which is probably why they brought him in last year (probably would have been a lot easier just to get rid of la russa for the cards clubhouse to mesh)
Yost had Suppan back in Milwaukee. Just a minor deal based on character of the guy and all that other good stuff. Does not mean he can pitch well in the bigs. That has been proven.
whats Suppan gonna do
If someone wants to pay him, Suppan will continue to pitch.
It’s really not that hard to figure out, izzit?
Plus, you can’t put a dollar value on “veteranosity.” Heh.
LOL