The Blue Jays agreed to sign right-handed reliever Francisco Cordero to a one-year, $4.5MM contract, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets. The Proformance client will set up for closer Sergio Santos, Rosenthal writes.
Cordero, 36, posted a 2.45 ERA with 5.4 K/9, 2.8 BB/9 and a 50% ground ball rate in 69 2/3 innings for Cincinnati this past season. Cordero reached the 30-save plateau for the fifth consecutive season, saving 37 games. His average fastball velocity checked in at 93 mph, but peripheral stats such as xFIP (4.14) and SIERA (3.91) suggest his 2.45 ERA may be artificially low. The Angels, Phillies, Orioles and Rangers all showed interest in Cordero leading up to today's agreement, MLBTR has learned.
The Blue Jays' bullpen will look considerably different in 2012, with newcomers Cordero, Jason Frasor, Sergio Santos and Darren Oliver joining holdovers Carlos Villanueva, Luis Perez, Jesse Litsch and Casey Janssen. Toronto's relievers placed 24th in MLB with 7.5 K/9 and 21st in MLB with a 3.88 ERA in 2011. The bullpen appears considerably stronger heading into the 2012 season, but the Blue Jays' rotation doesn't boast the same depth as other American League clubs such as the Yankees, Tigers, Rays, Angels and Rangers.
Though the Blue Jays won't have to surrender a draft pick to sign Cordero, the Reds will obtain a supplementary first round pick because of the modified procedure for Type A free agents under baseball's new collective bargaining agreement.
It's been a busy week for the Blue Jays, who signed Omar Vizquel last night and extended Brandon Morrow this morning. The Cordero agreement seems to remove them from the Koji Uehara trade talk.
Why?
This does give them a pretty good bullpen, but do they really need him?
because 1/$4M is low-risk and everyone wants guys like this at the trade deadline
I thought about that possibility but with the new CBA rules I can’t see Toronto getting value back for him, even with AA’s mind tricks.
AA is obviously going to trade for Trout sending LAA with Oliver and Cordero. Duh
very smart. not!
Tony Reagins: “Throw in Corey Patterson we got a DEAL!”
His phones not even plugged in!
Never again.
Under the old CBA, Type A relievers were a huge risk to be offered arbitration anyway (for fear that they would accept and saddle their teams with large contracts).
I’m not sure I love this, but at least it’s a closer.
Again.
umm, u misspelled set up man
Thanks man.
Amazing how I suddenly feel a LOT better (hope that tandem works…)!
😀
4.5 million for one year? I love this move. Very low risk, can move him at deadline. STACKED bullpen.
How can your bullpen be STACKED without Brad Mills?
Too many relievers …
Not really. They are hot commodities at the trade deadline.
remember the trade cardinals took? lol teams will jump on extra relievers. its good for baseball.
busy day for baseball, i like it!
Mets spent almost as much on Rauch and more on Francisco. I would prefer Cordero to close than Frank Francisco for his price, but o well, nice grab by the Blue Jays
As a Jays fan, let me tell you – Frank Francisco is pretty darn good. Jon Rauch is trash though.
yeah but i prefer 1 year 4.5 for Coredero over 2 years 11 million for Francisco
I bet he gets traded at the deadline if we’re out of contention, either this year or next.
The combination of 2011 Cordero + 2011 Mets defense might be the most heinous, terrifyingly awful debacle since Mo Vaughn ran into David Eckstein.
I wouldn’t take either
Francisco is pretty good? Maybe in the second half, but certainely not throughout the season.
that was just one year
True, but he said “As a Jays Fan”, isolating his time with The Blue Jays. I didn’t mind Francisco, but I’m not terribly sad he departed either.
Francisco was one of the best relievers (closers included) in all of baseball between 2008 and 2010. He was very good in 2011 as well. The guy is simply a good pitcher who started out last season hurt. There’s every reason to believe that he’ll be a good reliever over the next two seasons, particularly moving to the National League and pitching at Citi Field.
I told Blue Jay fans, Santos is no closer at the time of trade. Frazor and Santos are not good. Take it from a White Sox fan. If they were why make this move????
AA screwed up again.
their stat page disagrees with you
If both were still on the White Sox and dominated in 2012, you would be the first fan calling them the best in baseball. Since they both left the sinking ship called the White Sox, now they are trash. Gee, it sounds like many posters on the Blue Jays boards. lol.
dude the white sox are going to scrub dead last in the Central this year. don’t even talk. lol. seriously….. royals will even beat them. watch. they traded away great pieces and got garbage returns, and their team is getting old. blue jays are just getting younger and better. see tampa bay rays for how well they’ve done in that regard… pe@ce sucka.
hes not a sox fan.
your GM got taken again… move on. nothing to see here
you should change your name to rocks in head…you dont even know how to spell his name never mind how he pitches
How many WS have the Jays won on the 2000’s??????
The rocks are in your head. As the Jays head to another fourth or fifth place in the East. They are very average pitchers couldn’t make the White Sox.
Lol look at the Jays record against the white sox since 2008. 22-8
I disagree, Francisco is better than Francisco. I’d take Francisco over Francisco any day of the week.
San Francisco or Don Francisco? And didn’t Francisco Rice have a couple good years as a fill-in starter?
Perfect signing so cheap
Hey you guys got one… alright
stacked pen ftw
Coco!
Ugh, I wrote up a whole thing where I called my own post stu.pid so of course it goes off to the moderation void.
HIGHLIGHTS:
AA has lots of setup guys/closers
Hi I am a GM for a contending team, I will be calling you at the trade deadline.
Well looks like the Reds will be getting some compensation now. Anyone know what picks they gain by this signing? Would I rather have madson and ludwick or cordero and say vlad or damon? I do know madson is a definate upgrade over cordero but not sure vlad/damon is much of an upgrade over ludwick.
I’m sure you probably could of still had Vlad or Damon with Madson, they just make little to no sense for the Reds, especially Vlad.
Cincy get a sandwich pick after the first round. No big deal.
Of course. Madson>Cordero anyway. That had nothing to do with his comment though.
River Avenue Blues will have updated draft info, probably tomorrow. Should be in the 45-50 range.
By and large, Coco had a great run for the Reds here in Cincinnati. Got hard to justify the ROI when his price tag ballooned the last few years, but $4.5M/1 is a great deal for the Jays and I think he will contribute well for them in 2012.
Don’t mind the signing, its 1 year, not too much money.. but I doubt he sets up, atleast full time..
With all these good relievers now, hopefully Farrell got some advice on how to use them properly in the offseason.
Agreed, I see Cordero being used as a 7th inning guy. Farrell has admitted he didn’t do a very good job last season managing the pen, so hopefully we do see better use of them this season.
seriously… imagine AA calling Farrell in the dugout on who to get warmed up?
I’d prefer if Maddon called
can Farrell job shadow?
take your kid to work day!
The way I see: if the Jays can find a way to push for that 2nd Wild Card (they’d probably need to add a starter for this or have someone really step up) they’ve got a set bullpen.
If the Jays don’t push for the playoffs (probably more likely) they’ve got some nice assets to sell.
Hey – Dotel, Frasor, Rzepchinski and Stewart got them Rasmus. Not a bad strategy.
Are we just signing everyone named “Francisco”? Is that the plan, here?
Blue jays acquire Francisco Cervelli and Frank Francisco in a 3 team trade…
Lets make it 4 and throw in Francisco Liriano
Two thoughts came to mind when I heard this 1) AA is setting up for another trade, or 2) Maybe they’re going to try and stretch out Janssen and use him as a starter. He was a starter before experiencing arm trouble.
i like this move, it seems as though AA wants to stack the bullpen as much as possible which leads me to believe that he’s going to bring up some young arms to the rotation. with a better bullpen he can afford to let the call ups pitch less innings. if they exceed expectations then he’ll have these relievers as trade chips in the summer. if they dont, then he has the bullpen to cover the extra innings with the possibility of receiving compensatory picks if they leave after the season. i like what’s happening although i doubt it’s enough to contend. still 2 starting pitchers away imo. but aa might do something before spring training to land a starter in which case we would have a pretty good team.
Compensation picks for average relievers are a thing of the past. You would have to offer almost $13MM to get a pick out of them.
what i meant was the supplementary round pick. but yes i referred to it by the wrong name. either way i just meant he can get a pick out of them.
A supplemental round pick is a compensation pick. The Jays would have to offer a deal worth an AAV of near $13MM to get any pick out of any player. The Jays will no longer be getting picks for average relievers under the new CBA.
Yep…signing a reliever is now more like a baseball move instead of an asset management move
Nice move, and for $209.5 million less than Prince.
Now thats a bullpen.
Good thing we didn’t signed Prince Fielder lol
Nice deal, although I’m suprised there isn’t an option.
The “option guy” in the Blue Jays office phoned in sick today.
I can see the headline now
Cordero, McCoy, Vizquel, and Jannsen for a young used to be stud player, maybe Dominic Brown?
And yes, I’m kidding.
Precursor to the impeding Justin Upton deadline trade
Obviously to set up another move, just like the Ben Francisco signing.
Blue Jays starting pitchers now only have to go 3 innings, and the bullpen closes it out.
‘Brandon Morrow Likes this”
I honestly had that typed out, but after the extension and his potential, I thought I’d play nice.
If you think Coco is a shut down reliever, you got something coming.
not bad though for a 7th or 8th inning arm, particularly when they also have Oliver and Casey for those spots as well.
Yeah, he’s decent, but Indestructible said the game is now 6 innings. That is far from the truth if you’re counting Coco as having a perfect inning virtually every time he takes the mound.
The AL east is going to feast on whatever loose meat is left on Cordero’s ragged arm.
nice signing. one thing AA has had a good track record of to this point is signing players to one-year contracts, and flipping them for young talent. don’t see anything bad coming out of this signing.
My Jays are killing me, another old fart for the bullpen
Yeah another seasoned vet in the bullpen, who would want that?
some Jays fans seem to think that if its not a superstar then its pointless. They also don’t seem to realize that their not any “aces” out there to get without regretting the price paid.
Chalk one up for me! Called this one yesterday!
Good signing by the Jays, not too expensive, and much more stable than the guys we had last year.
Decent move. At this price I had hoped the Angels would have been on board. Cordero isn’t anything great but for under $5m it’s a solid move.
Great signing, now all there’s left to do is beat the Yanks, Sox and Rays. Easy!
Smooth move Cordero turn down 1/7.5 mill or 2/14 from the reds to close and get stuck with 4 mill to set-up on the fourth best team in the best division in baseball…
Sorry Jays fans. He’s your problem now.
drabek?