The Padres have agreed to a $987.5K salary to avoid arbitration with righty Carter Capps, according to Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (via Twitter). That’s a repeat of Capps’s first-year arb salary, owing to the fact that he missed the entirety of the 2016 season due to Tommy John surgery.
Capps, 26, landed in San Diego as part of the deadline deal that sent Andrew Cashner and Colin Rea to the Marlins. (Rea ended up being shipped back to Miami owing to health disclosure issues, though that didn’t impact Capps.) He continued to rehab his surgically replaced ulnar collateral ligament — the procedure occurred in early March of 2016 — and will be expected make his way back to the majors at some point in the 2017 season.
While the injury obviously put a big dent in his value, Capps brings plenty of intriguing upside with him to the Padres. He was absurdly dominant in 2015, pitching to a 1.16 ERA over 31 frames while racking up 58 strikeouts against just seven walks. While he had never before been nearly as successful at keeping runs off the board, Capps had run up impressive impressive peripherals in several prior seasons. It remains to be seen, perhaps, whether he’ll be able to maintain his elbow health in the long run while still employing the unorthodox, hopping delivery that drove his success (and also generated some controversy).
it must be very impressive if it’s impressive impressive
His pitching is so impressive that it draws rave reviews
Marlins weren’t smart to trade him imo
Does that make him the highest paid player on the Padres?
Clever, but no.
Close! He is the 3rd highest player on the 40 man roster right now & he isn’t even over making 1MM annually. The two highest salaries the Padres currently have are the last two they have given out with Richard & Chacin making 1.75MM next year. Operation 2017 full tank/rebuild.
considering they paid Tyson Ross 9+ mill to pitch 4 innings last year, 987..5k is a drop in the bucket.
He is a low risk high reward part of their team though. Won’t cost much and if he gets anywhere close to how he pitched prior to his injury he will be a nice asset.
Capps pitching mechanics will always cause him to be a high risk injury type player. Same type of mechanics that seem to keep Jordan Walden on the shelf.
Very true, but if anyone can help him fix that, it would be Darren Balsley.
Balsley has help players pitch better but not avoid arm problems.
He’s got a lot of talent…one would think that if he comes back healthy before the trade deadline that he will be in another uniform by the end of the season
Why? He’s 26 and under team control for a couple more years. He’ll need to make it through a season healthy to shed the injury-prone perception (insert Preller health records comment here) and he’ll be just as valuable next offseason as he would be midseason. Any contender looking for a closer will want a player who they can rely on being healthy through the season. In that case, Brandon Maurer or Ryan Buchter would be more likely trade candidates.
So today we have transactions for Coats and Capps. It’s wardrobe day at MLBTR !