The Indians announced today that they’ve extended right-handed reliever Dan Otero, agreeing to a two-year contract extension with a club option for a third year. The contract will buy out the ACES client’s final two years of arbitration eligibility and also give the team control over his first free-agent year. MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian reports (via Twitter) that Otero will be guaranteed $2.5MM on the deal. He’ll earn $1.1MM in 2018, $1.3MM in 2019 and has a $1.5MM club option with a $100K buyout. Otero can also earn $100K annually in bonuses tied to games finished.
Otero had already agreed to a one-year deal worth $1.3MM for the 2018 season this past Friday, so this new agreement will supersede that deal. It’s an eye-opener to see Otero agree to surrender a free-agent season for a minimal guarantee when he already had that deal in place, though it’s worth noting that arbitration deals like the one he agreed to last week aren’t fully guaranteed.
This contract, though, will afford Otero at least $2.5MM — a sum he wouldn’t have thought possible prior to the 2016 season when he was an unheralded waiver claim by the Indians. Set to turn 33 in February and with just over $3MM in career earnings to date, it seems that Otero simply prioritized taking the best guarantee that Cleveland was willing to offer.
While that’s not difficult to understand from a human perspective, the deal looks like a favorable one for the Indians from a baseball standpoint. Otero won’t blow anyone away with a fastball that averages just 90 mph, but he’s worked to an excellent 2.14 ERA in his 130 2/3 innings with Cleveland over the past two seasons. In that time, he’s averaged 6.5 K/9 against 1.3 BB/9 with just 0.6 HR/9 and a 63 percent ground-ball rate.
Good move for The Indians. Otero is a solid mid relief, control specialist guy. He really limits walks, and home runs, and has only hit 4 batters since 2014.
For a solid and reliable reliever, this is a great deal.
Steal
Excellent!
This is a good thing.
Win-win
I still hate how philly let him go before letting him suit up for them. Instead they kept James Russell -.-
He’s got to have the worst agent in baseball. Cleveland would have pounced on a two-year deal with that guarantee and no option, knowing it was a steal. Otero would have gotten just as much security and then the chance to make something like 7 mil for his first free agent year. The guy’s not young so doesn’t have many free agent years to work with and now he’s got an extra year of injury risk before his first shot to cash in too. Hate seeing good, mid-level, under appreciated players getting taken to the cleaners by the billion dollar companies they are making rich.
Say, you wouldn’t happen to work for the MLBPA, a body known for not respecting player decisions to assure security for one’s family, would you? Walk a mile in the shoes of any athlete and you’d know you are always one arm-shattering pitch away from never “cashing in” on that free agent contract at the end of the rainbow. Otero has his head screwed on straight; he took the bird in the hand and a chance to play meaningful games with one of the best organizations in the sport. (Dan’s also a scratch golfer and he knows how wonderful golf courses are in northeast Ohio over the summer.) Listen, if you want something to get irritated by, consider that Otero’s ERA and FIP were better than Bryan Shaw and Cody Allen and yet he didn’t make the postseason roster last year. Or that no matter how good Otero was the last couple of years, Terry Francona couldn’t quite bring himself to allow Dan into his circle of trust. Now, THAT’S something to be upset about, not the fact that Otero has won the lottery in life, Glad some people know what’s important.
It’s a personal decision, so I’m not going to criticize Otero for this, because that seems disingenuous, but this is one of the most surprisingly team-friendly deals I can think of. A comprehensive list of pitchers with at least 100 IP and a lower ERA- than Otero the past two years: Zach Britton, Kenley Jansen, Andrew Miller. I get that he’s old and doesn’t throw hard, but he’s been absolutely amazing for two years now, and he’ll be making the same amount as Wily Peralta just signed for