DECEMBER 21: ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick has the details on Nicasio’s contract. The reliever will earn $7.5MM in 2018 and $9MM in 2019, with a $500K signing bonus. He can earn up to $4MM in incentives, which are based on games finished.
DECEMBER 20: Nicasio’s signing has been announced.
DECEMBER 13, 5:46pm: The deal’s worth $17MM, Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets.
4:19pm: The Mariners have agreed to a two-year contract with free agent reliever Juan Nicasio, pending a physical, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (Twitter link). Nicasio, a client of Reynolds Sports Management, is the latest reliever to come off the board during the Winter Meetings, where a robust market has developed for bullpen pieces.
[RELATED: Updated Mariners Depth Chart]
The 31-year-old Nicasio, a former starter, drew interest from several teams on the heels of his best full season as a reliever, in which he spent time with the Pirates, Phillies and Cardinals. The right-hander combined for 72 1/3 innings across a National League-high 76 appearances with those clubs and recorded a 2.61 ERA, adding 8.96 K/9 against 2.49 BB/9 and a 45.6 percent groundball rate. Dating back to 2014, the first season in which he began garnering experience as a reliever, Nicasio has tossed 205 frames of 3.38 ERA ball while registering 9.99 K/9 and 3.42 BB/9.
The production Nicasio has offered during his time as a reliever would be a boon to a Mariners bullpen that finished with middle-of-the-pack rankings in ERA (13th) and fWAR (16th) in 2017. The M’s have since lost one of their top relievers from last year in Emilio Pagan, whom they traded to the Athletics for first baseman Ryon Healy last month. But other than Nicasio, there are still several appealing late-game options on hand in a group that includes fellow righties Edwin Diaz, Nick Vincent, David Phelps and Tony Zych and southpaws Marc Rzepczynski and James Pazos.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
A Mariners transaction that wasn’t a trade? Is Jerry Dipoto still Jerry Dipoto?
Jerry didn’t approve until he was told they were trading cash to acquire him
Management forced him to do it
Lol
Would’ve loved to see him stay in STL. For whatever reason, didn’t work out. SeTtlf hot s pretty good reliever.
Yeah, that sucks.
I had him as a lock to stay in St. Louis. The Cards’ have some work to do on their ‘pen.
That said, he makes a lot of sense for Seattle. He can offer a couple of innings if needed, which could prove vital if they don’t land another starter and have to lean on Gonzales, who, ironically, they acquired from St. Louis.
I think Seattle overpaid , but look at the price for relief pitchers these days
Seattle has to overpay in order to land free agents (see Cano, Robinson)…no way with all things being equal a player would rather go to Seattle than a large market team (see Ohtani, Shohei).
will we ever try and win? ever?
They signed a good reliever and you’re complaining?
Who’s “we”?
Good to see we are spending $$ rather than prospects
Because there’s no prospects left
All those game changers Jack z had? Sorry he is trading all the prospects from a bottom 5 farm system.
Eh. All the prospects Dipoto’s traded were B- guys. Neidert, the former #3 prospect in the system, has a #4 SP ceiling.
People are disappointed with the returns, but it’s low-minors junk for high-minors junk.
The Mariners farm system is pretty much low level junk.
dang waa hoping he’d sign with the Cardinals
Love all the moves in a weak division after Houston. Seattle could be sneaky good this season
that’s said every year about the mariners and you see the outcome… the angels will even place higher in the standings than the mariners
The Mariners need a starter and they’re pretty well set. Maybe they’ll need to upgrade 1B at the deadlin, no big deal.
The Angels need relievers, a second baseman, arguably a third baseman, and a whole lotta luck that Ohtani can offer 20+ starts.
2017 was an odd year for Seattle. In a single word: decimated. Odds are they won’t have the same bad luck with injuries and their pitching depth already looks much better than what they had to start 2017.
They ready upgraded on 1st base a month go.
*already*
You are right the Angels don’t seem to be finished but the one area you are wrong is third base they have signed Zach Cozart to play third. The Angels and the Mariners both have a shot at the wildcard this year. The Angels have improved and the Mariners probably won’t be decimated by injuries like they were last year. Both should be much improved.
I’m a die-hard Seattle fan, I’m loving all this off-season activity, love this move esp. and let me tell you, we specialize in looking really good “on paper.” Dark horse pick, sleeper, whatever you wanna call it but the more I watch the Ms, (emigrated from Scotland) since 92’, the more I realize we are becoming the West Coast Cubbies! Loveable losers haha Hope we have a healthy pitching staff this yr
What’s the dollar figure, relievers have been getting too much lately imo.
Well, there’s your opinion, and then there’s the actual market.
Stfu
If you wonder why your opinion gets so no respect, you just answered your pen question.
*own
Everyone careful, the morality police are out tonight!!
He said STFU because someone didn’t give him the answer he wanted. I don’t really get your response.
Now that the bullpen, 1B, and OF are pretty much set. Jerry needs to sign a starter(or two).
Didn’t you read the whole article? It’s a 7-year, 140m deal.
Who are you talking about? Juan Nicasio only got a 2 year, 17 million dollars deal.
I am pretty sure Stevil was attempting to make a joke at the guy who didn’t read the article and was told to STFU.
:)
Only?
How did this guy get more money than Neshek, the WAY better pitcher???!?!!
Pat Neshek fire your dumb agent!!!
Probably has to do with Neshek being six years old. More of a chance that he falls off the cliff.
FanGraphs Depth Charts and Steamer project Pat Neshek and Juan Nicasio with identical 2018 WAR of 0.8 and 0.6, respectively. Their reported contracts are nearly identical despite the six-year age difference that works in Nicasio’s favor.
Anyone else shocked at these annual salaries for RP?
Yes. Very high prices for middle relief imo.
Yeah I was guessing 12 after I heard two years, maybe 14 would be pushing it and 16 no way… he got 17
Yeah ridiculous the money they’re handing out. That’s why I don’t go to games anymore or buy jerseys. Can’t support this lunacy.
Mariners should have rebuilt long ago, Bavasi and Jack Z killed this organization and we’ve never recovered!
They tried but Ackley Hultzen Montero Franklin Smoak etc. didn’t work out… poor development. That needs to be fixed. They should wait till midseason to rebuild just in case… anything can happen
^ Very solid point… Mariners were supposed to have future studs that didn’t come remotely close to panning out.
And they lost the guys that could have succeeded with them (Chris Taylor, Smoak, etc) all found success elsewhere
The system’s been barren since the end of the Gillick era.
That Seager is easily the best (IOW: the only decent) Mariner acquired via draft since A-Rod (a Woody Williams acquisition) should speak volumes to that.
Should have listened to Harold Reynolds a couple years ago when he suggested we trade Felix and rebuild
We have a good Veteran Core, Cabo, Felix, Cruz, Seager….complimented, by a very good, controllable for the next 5 to 6 yrs, young core: Haniger, Gamel, Segura, Zunino, Heredia, Healy, Paxton, Gordon. We don’t need to tear the team down to rebuild right now. Just spend the next 5 to 6 years building your farm system
Good vet core… except Houston and pretty much anyone near the playoffs can boast a good core too. Altuve, Correa, Bregman, Gurriel, Tucker, Springer, etc. zunino haniger gamel Healy segura Gordon heredia is cool, but we have no farm system and no resources to get any better than a 2nd WC hopeful team without rebuilding. I could get into Seattle pitching vs Houston but there is a pretty big gap there
5 to 6 years building the farm system would be considered a rebuild wouldn’t it?
Félix is a 4th starter if healthy, Cano is declining, Cruz is old, Zunino inconsistent Gamel/Heredia/Healy not regulars in a playoff team
I’d argue Felix as a #3 but I agree Seattle needs to rebuild midseason
To be fair, in relation to SP #, I don’t think anyone, including Felix himself knows what he is right now. He’s just had consecutive injury plagued seasons over a career that included 6 straight years of pitching at least 200 innings- tying Randy Johnson as the only Ms pitcher to do so. At times last year Felix looked like an ace while also looking like a AAAA SP. And until he makes the transition away from being a strikeout SP I don’t think we’ll know where he fits. Hopefully, we’ll get an answer this coming season that pleases the Mariners fan base
I don’t think you know much about the Mariner’s. Mariner’s lineup currently.
Gordon
Segura
Seager
Cano
Cruz
Haniger
Gamel
Zunino
Healy
Is absolutely a playoff lineup. Gamel is a very good player, I see him improving. Haniger I think is going to be very good. Healy is 25 I think this year will show if he has some improvement. He is 25 homers so if he gets to 30 homers as there 7th or 8th best hitter then that’s amazing. But even if he just replicates last season that’s an upgrade for the Mariner’s. Starting pitching is my only real worry at the moment. Leake is a good innings eater. Paxton is great but needs to give more innings. King Felix I honestly wished they made him in that long relief super reliever role. Would let him pitch less and help him sustain health and gives us a vet for high leverage situations. They won’t do it but it’s a dream. Erasimo Ramirez is a good 4/5 starter. I say they need two sp. Move erasimo Ramirez to the long relief/emergency starter. Let iwakuma and someone battle for the 5th spot. An ace would be ideal. Move Paxton to 2, Felix to 3, leake 4 and 5 would be a competition. Bullpen would consist of Diaz, Juan, Phelps, Ramirez, Vincent and two lefties. Jerry says he would want 13 pitchers this off-season so maybe even with the injuries to this team make a 6 man rotation for Felix, iwakuma and Paxton’s health. Feel really good about this team and Jerry is doing a good job. See what else they do and hope it translates on the field.
You have to consider that the other teams in the division have improved also!
How are all these comments 1 week ago when the post is one hour…
It is a week old they just update with latest news about it
We’re all time travelers. My name is Michael j fox.
I feel like the Cardinals missed their chance here with Nicasio.
I thought he was a better fit than Gregerson. Though, more $
Hoping he was staying in St. Louis.
He either didn’t like something about stl or he had a larger asking price, stl moved on, and he compromised with the M’s to get a few years of what seems to be a decent deal. I also wanted him to stay as he did a great job out of the pen. To bad we dont know the behind the scenes info.
It’s insane to pay a middle reliever this much cash. Although, I guess it’s the going rate. Professional sports is pricing itself out of the typical household. My prediction? Professional sports will soon find themselves out of business due to financial greed. None of these players are worth more than $1 million annually to play a damned game. It’ll become an outing for the 1%ers and corporations only. In fact, it’s already happening. No longer can I justify $1000 to take my family of 5 to a sporting event, and a refuse to do so. This 55 year old die hard sports fan will stick to TV only!
Despite having a solid year for both PIT and STL last year, the Pirates released him and got absolutely nothing in return, and the Cards didn’t seem the least bit interested in bringing him back. Is there something here I’m missing, or were those teams expecting more out of him?