The Cubs will not tender a contract to reliever Hector Rondon, according to ESPN.com’s Jesse Rogers (via Twitter). MLBTR had projected Rondon to earn $6.2MM via arbitration — a price that was too high for Chicago and, evidently, other teams around the league.
Rondon, 29, made quite an impact as a former Rule 5 pick, turning in a quality three-year run for the organization between 2014 and 2016. Over 184 1/3 innings in that span, he turned in a 2.44 ERA with 9.3 K/9 and 1.9 BB/9. Though he ceded his closer role to Aroldis Chapman in the midst of the team’s World Series run, Rondon remained a major piece of the club’s late-inning mix.
That did not hold up in 2017, however, as Rondon ended the year with a 4.24 ERA in 57 1/3 frames. He struck out 10.8 batters per nine but also issued 3.1 free passes per nine innings and allowed ten long balls. Rondon did still deliver his average fastball in the 96 to 97 mph range, and turned in a personal-best 11.9% swinging-strike rate to go with a 48.3% groundball rate.
Rondon seemingly lost the confidence of skipper Joe Maddon, to the point that he did not factor in the late-inning mix during the team’s postseason run. While the Cubs’ decision to move on is not terribly surprising at this point, it’s a bit of a surprise to learn that the organization was not able to find a suitable trade partner. The one-year price tag is hardly cheap, but falls in the range of contracts that often go to somewhat less-accomplished pitchers. There’s plenty of reason to think that Rondon will catch on elsewhere, perhaps even earning consideration for high-leverage innings, but it seems he’ll need to settle for less money than the $6.2MM or so he might have expected through arbitration.
Ha
Very intriguing addition to the FA market
Wow
He’ll get a 1 year deal with incentives somewhere. The relief market is way too fluttered for him to make significant money
Fluttered like a butterfly? ;-). Darn autocorrect !
Not surprising, he was not added to the postseason roster till the NLCS and didn’t fair well when called upon. He had some good years and I wish him well in the future.
Now send Grimm packing too.
What’s wrong with Grimm? I haven’t followed very closely, but he seems to have done pretty well since coming over from Texas. Didn’t he even get a couple of starts?
His fastball gets hammered repeatedly.
Grimm isn’t too horrible. He’ll cruise for like a month making 10 or so appearances and not give up a run……. but then will have a couple back to back horrendous outings not even going an inning but give up like 2-4 runs. He’s either locked in and looks like an elite reliever……. or he looks like a fringe/quad A type reliever. As a result the 2-4 horrible outings he usually has balloons up his stats which really aren’t indicative to how he actually is over the course of the season….. BUT he is definitely not reliable. So would I say he is garbage? No. Would I say he is a major loss though if let go…… no. He’s just “a guy” IMO.
That said, it is shocking to find out that they let Rondon go but DID tender a contract to Grimm. This tells me it was solely all about money. Due to Rondon having EXCELLENT (I don’t care what anyone says, he was superb) closing experience on his resume it inflated his take in arbitration. He was projected to make $6.2M in arbitration this offseason…… compared to the $2.4M Grimm is projected to make due to not having the pretty resume Rondon has. I won’t be shocked if the Cubs don’t make serious adds on the reliever FA market, if they offer Rondon a deal but in the $4M/year range. Personally I’d rather see them dump Rondon, Grimm, and Wilson…. who was just brutal to watch in the 2nd half. Then got out and sign the likes of Minor, Reed, and McGee…… in addition to re-signing Davis. Only returning dudes then (other than Davis) would be Edwards, Strop, and Montgomery. Before anyone says “they don’t have the money” to go out and sign all these relievers…. Yes…. Yes they do. I’ve broken it down in several comments scattered throughout this website, but with the money coming off the books in addition to letting Rondon, Grimm, and Wilson go they have AMPLE money to sign not only Davis, Reed, Minor, and McGee to the bullpen….. but also Lynn and Cobb to the rotation. AND if they jettison Zobrist’s contract via a salary trade dump to a young, rebuilding team in need of veteran leadership…… say, the Phillies, Braves, or White Sox and getting little in return through said trade, they’d have enough money to go out and get Holland too for the bullpen…… and STILL have a lower payroll in 2018 compared to 2017 and 2016. Hell, trade Zobrist to sign Holland in addition to the other bullpen additions, and then instead of signing both Lynn and Cobb they could bring back Arrieta or sign Darvish if they wanted to make a bigger SP splash. That of course means they’d likely need Montgomery or a minor leaguer to step up and be the 5th starter though. But a bullpen of Davis, Holland, Reed, Strop, Edwards, Minor, McGee, and Montgomery would be just friggin nasty. Which is why I’d rather have Lynn and Cobb as the 4th and 5th starters. Just adds more depth to the team, and it’s not like Lynn and Cobb are bums…….. when healthy is the key though. Another bonus will ALL my additions…… none of them are likely to get anything longer than 4 year deals, meaning they’d be free agents after 2021…… right when all the young position players are due to hit FA themselves. So they’ll have AMPLE money coming off the books to re-sign guys like Rizzo, Bryant, Contreras, Schwarber, Baez, Russell, etc. if they want to re-sign those guys – which they likely do want to.
To the complete and utter shock of … no one.
Pirates will turn him into an allstar
Hey Duke. More flotsam to add to the O’s growing pile of dung to throw at the wall.
A historic day for Major League Baseball – 2 Rondons non-tendered on the same day
Almost every team will be in on this guy
But not the other Rondon!
As a free agent perhaps Hector Rondon will join with just signed catcher Wellington Castillo and reunite with their former manager Rick Renteria as a White Sox in 2018. It’s not like the South Siders couldn’t use some bullpen help where Rondon would also have a legitimate shot at being their opening day closer.
Don Cooper helped rejuvenate less certain power arms in Tommy Kahnle and Anthony Swarzak last season and perhaps can do likewise with Rondon on the South Side. Having a Rodon (Carlos) and Rondon on the same staff also has a nice ring to it. Maybe the White Sox can also bring aboard hard throwing Bruce Rondon for good measure as he appears destined for a non-tender from the Tigers as well. lol
A one-year “make-good” contract with the Twins makes some sense…
Under-utilized, mismanaged and, quite frankly, disrespected by the Cubs organization. Will make a fine addition to any team.
He hasn’t thrown a strike in a year and a half. Of course, even when he was closing he was wild. Not a fun guy to watch in high leverage situations.
Maybe this was true back when Rondon was the closer, but man oh man was he terrible this year. Wouldn’t start pitching until he let every inherited runner come in to score. Had Rondon not had closed out games for the Cubs, his price tag would have been closer to Grimm’s range, where I think they would have kept him.
LOL. I know you don’t watch many Cubs games.
The guy is atrocious. It’s like having a 13 year old pitch against Major League Baseball players.
The guy gets shelled every single time they put him out there.
Let me guess, that’s Maddon’s fault, too.
Rondon was truly god awful last season. He was especially horrific when the games mattered the most.
Come on over to the other side of Chicago. We’ll get you some save opportunities to build that resume back up.
Always liked him. Good luck to him where ever he goes next. He’ll work his mechanics out. And get back on track
a bit surprised no one wanted him at that price
People who think Hector Rondon is any good don’t watch much baseball.
Completely agree. I think they still have the 2015 Hector Rondon in their head. VERY different baseball player, now.
He isn’t even good enough to be in the minor league, much less the major league.
I like Hector Rondon, and if the White Sox pick him up, hopefully he can get back to the reliever he once was for the Cubs. 2017 was a bad year for Rondon, so a change could get him back on track
Cubs needed roster spot for Ohtani
Well, that’s a lot better than thinking they were just kicking him to the curb. Seems like we have a couple of other relievers, like Justin Grimm who could have served the same purpose.
Rondon 6mil/year vs Grimm 1.85/yr. I have no Idea though why Grimm is still a cub.
The White Sox need to sign this guy for 5 million or so and make him the closer. Don Cooper will fox whatever is wrong with him within a week of working with him and then we can flip him ag the deadline. Also if the Cubs want to get rid of zobrist we will take on his contract if they give us some lower level prospects. Also Sox needs to sign one of the top 5 free agents and frontload the contract so they can flip him next off season. But not a free agent that cost a draft pick. After they trade Abreu maybe sign Duda, and sign mike Napoli to a minor league contract with a 2 million dollar bonus if he comes up to the big club. Also I think Garcia is for real so see if he is interested in a team friendly 3 year extension that would keep him with the Sox though 2022. He could end up as our full time DH by next year. Let Matt Davidson hit 30 HR”s at DH and 3rd base this year and trade him in July