The Astros have inked free-agent righty Hector Rondon to a two-year, $8.5MM pact. Rondon, an Octagon client, was non-tendered by the Cubs earlier this month. Now, he’s lined up for successive $4MM and $4.5MM salaries in Houston, where he’ll represent an arm with closing experience to help fortify the back of the bullpen.
Rondon, 30 in February, saved 77 games with a 2.44 ERA, 9.3 K/9 and 1.9 BB/9 with the Cubs fro 2014-16. He initially lost the closer’s role in Chicago through little fault of his own, as he was bumped from that spot when Chicago acquired Aroldis Chapman from the Yankees prior to the 2016 non-waiver trade deadline.
The 2017 season was Rondon’s worst since the 2013 campaign (when he was a Rule 5 pick out of the Indians organization), as he turned in a 4.24 ERA with a 3.1 BB/9 mark — both his highest levels since that rookie season. However, Rondon also logged a career-high 10.8 K/9 and 29.1 percent overall strikeout rate in 2017 while maintaining excellent fastball velocity (average of 96.4 mph) and an above-average ground-ball rate (48.3 percent).
Like many pitchers throughout the league, Rondon has become increasingly susceptible to home runs across the past two seasons, averaging 1.5 HR/9 despite being extremely stingy in that regard throughout the first three seasons of his career. His increased vulnerability to the long ball obviously made the uptick in walks this past season all the more damning, though metrics like xFIP (3.43) and SIERA (3.20) remained generally bullish on his abilities.
Houston has already reportedly added to its supply of late-inning arms by striking a deal for sidearm righty Joe Smith, and Rondon will give them another option to pair with the likes of Ken Giles, Chris Devenski and Will Harris in the late innings. Giles, who served as the team’s closer throughout the season, struggled in the playoffs, though the addition of Rondon wouldn’t seem to supplant him from that ninth-inning role. If Giles’ struggles carry over into the 2018 campaign, though, Rondon would certainly be a plausible alternative for manager A.J. Hinch to get the final few outs of a game, given his extensive experience in Chicago.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported the signing on Twitter. Rosenthal (in a tweet), SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo (via Twitter), and Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (via Twitter) had contract details.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Bye bye hector
Maybe I’m wrong but wasn’t he non-tendered by the Cubs
I was so confused for a second why a team would non tender then almost immediately re sign
That does happen. This year, it already happened with Kyle Crockett, Hanser Alberto, and Chi Chi González
So it does, fair enough
Teams often non-tender a player only to immediately re-sign him so they can keep him in the organization w/ out burning a 40 man spot.
Yeah, he was non-tendered by the Cubs.
They should have kept him
Why? Explain your wrong opinion.
How can an opinion be wrong?
The same way your statement makes no sense.
Because he has a high ceiling among a group of shaky Cubs’ relievers. Wilson is projected the highest at 1.3 WAR and struggled with them since the trade. No other Cubs reliever projects for more than Rondon’s WAR projection. That’s why his opinion is valid.
It’s impossible to have a wrong opinion. It’s not the same thing as a statement.
It can be, regardless of your liberally based psycho babble.
Dems claim Trump stole the election through RUssain this and RUssian that. He did not,
They also claim. “not my President”. Yeah, well, if you live in America, he is.
Yeah, it is.
If I say, that, in my opinion the sky is purple, my opinion is wrong.
Or, he is wrong because he lost his confidence and Joe lost confidence in him and the team no longer wished to keep him.
What were his projecitons last year?
Saying “in my opinion”, does not make it an opinion. There are facts and opinions, two different things
Very good buy low move.
Non tendered by the cubs not Astros
Another RH reliever for the Astros. Wonder who gets bumped from the 40 man?
Gregerson gone
Non-tendered by the Cubs*
Hopefully for him he gets his stuff back.
Nice signing by the Astros. I was hoping the Padres would sign him, have Balsley “fix him” and then have a nice trade piece at the deadline.
He showed a tendency to be lights out in some games, and in others he’s just throwing meatballs over the plate. Appreciate what he did for the Cubs, but not too troubled to see him go. Guess it’ll depend on what he does with Houston.
And his control goes back and forth. When he is in.. he’s almost unhittable. Just wasn’t in very much last year
good bounce back candidate? I haven’t watched him play very much.
If he bounces back, you’ll be ecstatic. I’m not sure how probable that is exactly, though.
Disappointing
Based off of his numbers, excluding last year, the guy seems pretty legit for a back end piece. He should be more consistent than all those young guys like feliz, martes and paulino
The back end of the bullpen was already pretty set minus a lefty. It just doesn’t make sense to me to bring in yet another right hander. Though it does seem to set them up for some other moves.
Might be good. How much are they paying him?
Houston, you had better move your fences back about another two hundred feet.
This guy is the king of meatballs right over the heart of home plate, and then watching the moon shots soar out into the atmosphere.
He throws a juicy meatball slider that gets romped for extra base hits in most of his outings. Hitters can sit dead red with a secondary offering like that.
He can barely make it through an inning anymore because his control will completely leave him after 6 or 7 pitches.
Definitely a reclamation project.
He will fit in well with giles.
Hector was lights out with the first 2 outs of the inning……getting the 3rd out was nearly impossible.
Forget about multiple innings!
I think their bullpen is looking much better now. Giles, Harris, Smith, and Rodon can all be solid 1 inning relievers. And they’ve still got Devo, Peacock, and Musgrove who can go 1-4 innings if needed. I think they’ve got enough depth at this point Idk if they really need a lefty like everyone’s been saying. It’s not like there are great lefties available atm anyway. I think the move now is wait and see if sipp can bounce back. If he struggles again, drop him and make a move at the trade deadline for one more arm.
They snagged Anthony Gose in the rule 5 draft also (as a pitcher). The former outfielder hits 100 reportedly and is a lefty.
Well yeah but there’s no risk involved. He’ll get his shot at spring training but I’m not expecting very much.
Gose is just a shot in the dark…..the stros themselves admitted to this. He’s got supposedly great stuff, but has only pitched 10 professional innings in class A ball, and was mediocre there. So, if somehow the stros turn him into a power lefty in spring training they’ll keep him, otherwise he’ll be back to the Rangers. And the Rangers have said they’ll take him back if the stros cut him loose.
I like the move, however, this pencil other young arms such as Marte, Feliz, and Hoyt to start the season in AAA. I hope none of them is out of options. It also affects the status of starters like Peacock and McHugh. One of them will not have a place in the rotation and possibly neither in the bullpen. Astros might decide to trade one of them. I still believe the Astros are going to make a strong push to get lefty Brad Hand from SD.
I am thinking along the same lines. I smell a trade for a lefty, possibly leveraging one of their surplus starters or young bullpen arms who could be converted back to starting.
That’s a photo of SHOOTER BECK 🙂
I was hoping Hector Rondon might sign a short term deal with the White Sox where he could remain in Chicago on a make good one year contract, perhaps with a team option and regain his closer role that he lost with the Cubs. I was looking forward to him reuniting with manager Rick Renteria and catcher Wellington Castillo where he had success in his first year closing on the North Side back in 2014.
That being said, Rondon will now pitch for the defending world champions with a reported two year guaranteed contract, although it’s hard to imagine him winning the closer role with Ken Giles in house. In addition, this signing pretty much eliminates the Astros from the Wade Davis sweepstakes unless they’re looking to trade Giles. If that scenario occurred, it would be like deja vu for Rondon. with the Cubs in 2017. lol
I like the move, buy low on a guy who still throws 96 mph. Bullpen is stuffed with right handers – Giles, Devenski, Harris, Smith, Musgrove, Hoyt and now Rondon. I smell a trade coming for a lefty.
What’s his salary?
Really buy low, $8.5M over 2 years it appears
Brent Strom is a great pitching coach…I think this is a great signing
Not a bad move. If he can return to form, he’d definitely upgrade their bullpen.
Now see, this is why the Giants suck. They don’t make these type of signings. They strikeout on the top tier guys, then miss the glue-type players. I’m not saying this out of bitterness due to lack of movement this offseason. I’ve been saying this since ’14 ended. Also, Giants FO are closet racists. I am talking about their current ownership group (who I know from SF, elitists, have small town white mentality in a big City) I know their names, I know what they put their money towards. So before you argue my point, look into them. I am a white male and diehard Giants fan. This group has a track record of treating Latin players poorly, have the whitest roster in baseball (Denard the token black guy) Don’t tell me about how the pursued Stanton, need I remind you that they would love to profit off his talent, while adding a lil bit of color into the mix for those of us who see it. C White, 1B White, 2B White, 3B White, SS White, LF White, CF BLACK, RF White, 4 White SP’s and a token Latin who they would not have signed had they landed Greinke, Basically an All White bullpen. Gross.
i signed in just to tell you how dumb you sound. delete your account. making race issues when there arent any. youre upset they didnt sign rodon? did you want him? a team looking at possibly rebuilding signing rodon in this relief market makes little sense. they were either going for impact players to fight off rebuilding or as it seems getting ready for said rebuild.
I concur with Tyler. Delete your account sfp415sfc! You racist loser
Your big city, elitism is showing….signed, small town white guy,
C’mon man….
No question that injuries and confidence issues hurt his standing with the Cubs. But this guy was on the mound for one of most underrated part of the Cubs rebuild – 9th inning, G4 of the NLDS against St. Louis. That’s what I’ll remember most about his time with the Cubs.
105 Win team next year, I see lots of room for improvement
Hector throws hard and straight! As a Cardinals fan I hate to see him go!
The last game of 2016 season Sipp pitched 2 perfect innings.If they had used him like that early in seasons 2016 or 2017 he mightve got into a groove.Hard to get in a groove pitching to only 1 or 2 batters a game