SUNDAY: Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets the breakdown of Valverde's performance bonuses: $75K for appearing in 40, 45, and 50 games; $100K for appearing in 55, 60, and 65 games; $100K for finishing 30 and 35 games; $250K for finishing 40 and 45 games; and $300K for finishing 50 games. Valverde also has a March 26 opt-out, tweets Sherman.
WEDNESDAY, 10:51am: Valverde can also earn up to $1.5MM in performance bonuses, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (Twitter link).
9:11am: The Mets have signed right-hander Jose Valverde to a minor league deal that contains an invitation to Major League Spring Training, the team announced on Twitter. Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reports (also via Twitter) that the Praver/Shapiro client will earn $1MM if he makes the club.
This marks the second former closer that the Mets have signed to a minor league deal in the past week, as the club has also invited Kyle Farnsworth to camp. Valverde is the more accomplished closer of the two, but his recent struggled are well-documented. "Papa Grande" posted a 3.00 ERA with 7.9 K/9, 4.1 BB/9 and 110 saves for the Tigers from 2010-12. However, he began to unravel late in the 2012 season and in the 2012 playoffs. He would eventually return to Detroit in May 2013, briefly solidifying the closer role before allowing six home runs in eight appearances. The end result was a 5.59 ERA that caused the Tigers to designate Valverde for assignment.
Valverde adds another experienced arm to the Mets' bullpen depth, and he'll try to break camp with the team in order to join a bullpen that figures to be headlined by Bobby Parnell and young flamethrower Vic Black.
Edward Creech contributed to this post.
I like this move- if he regains his form, offers a solid backup closer option
That’s exactly what DET said. Where’s Valverde going to find velocity?
Valverdes issue is that he lost his splitter. He’s a 1 pitch pitcher now… and without much control.
Amen. Papa’s problem wasn’t velocity, it was that he had no splitter and so no matter how hard he threw his fastball batters were sitting on it and teeing off.
Hopefully he can salvage something. Papa Grande has always been a thrill to watch
Just not the kind of thrill you would be looking forward to
your right 286 saves and a career 3.19 weren’t worth looking forward to for his fans
That’s a horrible argument. That’s like saying the Mets oughta sign Gary Sheffield bc he hit 509 HR and has a career .292 BA.
When someone is done they are done. Papa Grande has lost his splitter, he can’t throw it with any consistency any longer.
I wish him the best, but if all he can throw is his 4 seam fb you’re likely to see his ERA back near 5.50 and a WHIP above 1.2 again.
Wasn’t arguing that he would be there again, just noting that he’s been enjoyable to watch and negating his entire career because of an inevitable but very recent decline is unfair to say. Hence the Mets as his new team.
3.78 in 2012, 5.59 in 2013 with one pitch who barely breaks 90 mph…. That’s no formula for success. He had a great career and was really good a couple years ago but he’s not going to get his form back this year
I could not agree more. Give me a list of successful pitchers that only throw 1 pitch………… exactly, there are none.
Mo did it with basically the cutter
But I agree, Mo is an exception to the rule
Mo’s cutter is an exception to the rule haha. But thanks for bringing him up
Not bad if he can do somewhere around his 2012 numbers
He brings some swagger to an otherwise fairly boring team, personality wise. I thought they should have brought in Wilson last year for that same reason. Not that the two are really comparable, but at least there’s some personality here now. I’ll be interested to see if he makes the team.
Boring personalities are relatively good for a team. Having lots of loud personalities ruins the clubhouse. A guy that is a good leader can still seem boring. Last year, not many of the Sox seemed to have personality. Grandy is a great guy though and the Mets are lucky to have him in the club house. Valverde might be great for the fans but he’s not a clubhouse guy.
The Red Sox have a ton of personality to them…
Valverde is widely regarded as a train wreck. I know he definitely was a mess in AZ
Can somebody answer a question for me’? I’ve been a big baseball fan for over twenty years now, but I have always wondered this… Who decides who starts the year on the big club? Would it be Collins, Alderson or a combination of both? Who actually has the final say?
Both have a say in final roster. I dont get the Mets at all. Seems like the franchise has accepted mediocrity. Just enough talent to not have worst record but neither enuf to truly compete.
What are you talking about? They had four straight .500+ seasons up until 2008 and were within outs of going to the WS. Then, through a combination of bad signings and the Madoff scandal, they’ve had to cut back their spending and they are now rebuilding. They’re doing it the right way now. What a silly comment.
Keith law also ranked the mets 6th on his farm system rankings. Harvey will also be back in 2015 so good things are to come
Sometimes people forget that in baseball out of 30 teams only one will take the title. And people are quick to judge the other 29 teams for under performing and say things like “accept mediocrity”. The truth is every team out there wants to win, and they want it bad enough, however it is also a business, you just don’t throw all your money to get players and hope to win (look at 2012 marlins)
Excellent signing by the Mets. Valverde was one of the top closers in the game not too long ago and they got him on a minor league deal.
Key words are “was one of the top closers in the game”, would not expect much from him if anything at all.
You have no idea what you’re in for….as a lifetime Tiger fan he has given us nothing but anxiety and heart attacks the past 2 seasons even in his big save numbers. Guaranteed men on base in the 9th. Have Fun!
The thing is he won’t be our closer.
Then that makes it even worse!!!! HAHA….you might want to check his numbers in non closing situations.
Well after Franco and Benitez and most recently, K-Rod, we’re pretty used to heart attacks in the 9th!
Don’t forget Looper, Krod, and (briefly) Frankie Frank.
overall sandy’s done a pretty impressive job this offseason with the finances he was allotted. sandy has now picked up 4 pitchers on super low risk minor league deals(valverde, farnsworth, lannan and matsuzaka), 3 of which will probably make the team out of camp. I can see dice k taking the 5th spot in the rotation and lannan being the long man in the pen taking spot starts when needed. I have a feeling that they are going to bring one of Farnsworth/valverde up north with the other dfa’ed. now if they can get Drew on their terms at 2yrs/ 22-24mil, this roster is rounding out and has a legitimate shot at being relevant this year.
If relevance is .500 then yes they MAY be relevant.
I think its going to be Torres as the longman/spot starter and I’m hoping for mejia to grab the 5th starters reign although I think it’ll end up being Dicek
Torres will not be needed for a spot start. Mejia, deGrom, Matsuzaka, Lannan, Montero and Syndergaard are all in line for a start before the Mets need to rely on Torres for a spot start.
I expect absolutely nothing from Jose. Therefore, I cannot be disappointed.
Its a minors deal so its not really a big issue if he makes it to the MLB roster and performs well then its a huge plus for the team like Bryd was last year for the Mets.
I like this signing. For the price I see this going a lot better than Rauch from a few years ago
Rauch is one of those guys that Mets fans seemed to absolutely hate because of a few horrible and bad timed outings. But he actually pitched really well.
If he can finish 50 games, I’ll find a way to personally give him $5 million