The Rockies have agreed to terms with a pair of veteran relievers on two-year contracts, the club announced. Both Jason Motte and Chad Qualls are headed to Colorado.
Motte will receive a $10MM guarantee over his two years, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports (Twitter links). That will be broken out into equal, $5MM salaries, per Joel Sherman of the New York Post (via Twitter). And Qualls will take home a $6MM overall promise from Colorado, Rosenthal adds. He’ll receive a $1MM signing bonus and then annual payouts of $1.75MM and $3.25MM, according to a tweet from Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports.
Bringing in this veteran pen package will obviously do quite a bit to bolster the back of a bullpen that was obviously in need of reinforcement. Several of the team’s most-used late-inning options — including Adam Ottavino (Tommy John), John Axford (non-tender), and LaTroy Hawkins (trade/retirement) — won’t be opening the year in Colorado.
Motte, 33, handled 48 1/3 frames for the Cubs in 2015, working to a 3.91 ERA with 6.3 /9 against 2.0 BB/9. That was a fair cry from the more dominant numbers he posted as the Cardinals closer, but he had missed all of 2013 and a big chunk of 2014 with Tommy John surgery.
But Motte was at least able to show last year that he is still capable of handling a significant bullpen role. And he ran his average fastball up to 95 mph — not quite what it used to be, but still a big radar reading.
Qualls is a 37-year-old right-hander who has bounced around a lot over his career, as is common for relievers who last as long as he does. He posted only a 4.38 ERA in 49 1/3 innings for the Astros last year, but did run up some impressive peripherals. Qualls racked up 8.4 K/9 against just 1.6 BB/9 to go with a 59.9% groundball rate.
That solid showing wasn’t enough to entice Houston to pick up a $3.5MM option to retain him for 2015, however. Qualls did show a fairly significant velocity drop-off last year, going from the 92 to 93 mph range down to an average 91.4 mph on his sinker. But it’s worth noting, too, that he carries sub-3.00 SIERA marks for each of the last three seasons, which he maintained in spite of the reduced pop on the gun.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Good for the Rockies that they sign Motte.Qualls could do alright with Colorado, he was okay with the Astros.
That covers two spots in the bullpen…5 to go.
I think that covers the closer role till ottavino comes backs. Both guys have save history
Motte only held up for the first half last year. The second half he was ineffective and then hurt.
I suppose they are competent adds based on where the Rockies are. At the end of the day, these are two fringe guys that will struggle in the thin air. #they’llgetpounded
Good luck with Qualls. Given the air in Coors Expect that sinker to flatten out and lots of hrs.
I like these moves. Was really hoping Bridich would at the very least address the bullpen at the winter meetings. If Boone Logan can return to half of what he was with the Yankees, and Ottavino can turn in some decent innings post-TJ, the Rockies bullpen will be very much improved.