Headlines

  • Blue Jays Sign Chad Green
  • Rays Extend Yandy Diaz
  • Dexter Fowler Announces Retirement
  • Mets Sign Jeff McNeil To Four-Year Extension
  • Red Sox, Marlins Swap Matt Barnes For Richard Bleier
  • Darren O’Day Announces Retirement
  • Previous
  • Next
Register
Login
  • Hoops Rumors
  • Pro Football Rumors
  • Pro Hockey Rumors

MLB Trade Rumors

  • Home
  • Teams
    • AL East
      • Baltimore Orioles
      • Boston Red Sox
      • New York Yankees
      • Tampa Bay Rays
      • Toronto Blue Jays
    • AL Central
      • Chicago White Sox
      • Cleveland Guardians
      • Detroit Tigers
      • Kansas City Royals
      • Minnesota Twins
    • AL West
      • Houston Astros
      • Los Angeles Angels
      • Oakland Athletics
      • Seattle Mariners
      • Texas Rangers
    • NL East
      • Atlanta Braves
      • Miami Marlins
      • New York Mets
      • Philadelphia Phillies
      • Washington Nationals
    • NL Central
      • Chicago Cubs
      • Cincinnati Reds
      • Milwaukee Brewers
      • Pittsburgh Pirates
      • St. Louis Cardinals
    • NL West
      • Arizona Diamondbacks
      • Colorado Rockies
      • Los Angeles Dodgers
      • San Diego Padres
      • San Francisco Giants
  • About
    • MLB Trade Rumors
    • Tim Dierkes
    • Writing team
    • Advertise
    • Archives
  • Contact
  • Tools
    • 2022-23 MLB Free Agent List
    • Top 50 Free Agents
    • Projected Arbitration Salaries For 2023
    • Transaction Tracker
    • Extension Tracker
    • Arbitration Tracker
    • Agency Database
  • NBA/NFL/NHL
    • Hoops Rumors
    • Pro Football Rumors
    • Pro Hockey Rumors
  • App
  • Chats
Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Rockies Re-Sign Jake McGee

By Jeff Todd and Steve Adams | December 15, 2017 at 1:27pm CDT

The Rockies have officially agreed to bring back free agent lefty Jake McGee with a three-year deal that guarantees $27MM. McGee is represented by Wasserman.

McGee’s guarantee comes in the form of consecutive salaries of $7MM, $8.5MM, and $9.5MM. He’s then promised a $2MM buyout on a 2021 vesting/club option that’s priced at $9MM. The extra year vests if McGee appears in sixty games in 2020, finishes forty games in that year, or makes 110 total appearances over the 2019-20 campaigns. There’s also a health requirement for the option to vest, though details remain unclear. It seems the contract also contemplates incentives of up to $4MM annually; while the milestones aren’t known, that leaves some earning upside in McGee’s pocket.

Jake McGee | Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

It’s not surprising to see a multi-year deal with a strong guarantee based both on McGee’s quality efforts in 2017 and an aggressive market for relievers thus far. McGee will become the latest in a line of high-quality relievers to come off the board and joins right-hander Bryan Shaw at the back of the Colorado bullpen nw that their deals are finalized.

The 31-year-old McGee struggled in his initial season with the Rockies (2016) after coming over from the Rays in the Corey Dickerson swap, but he largely righted the ship with a solid 2017 season. In 57 1/3 innings, the hard-throwing McGee posted a respectable 3.61 ERA with 9.1 K/9 against 2.5 BB/9 and a 40.5 percent ground-ball rate.

McGee’s 37 percent hard-contact rate is certainly higher than one would like to see, though it’s worth pointing out that much of that hard contact came on grounders; Statcast indicates that McGee’s average exit velocity on balls in the air was among the lowest in baseball (as is borne out in his 0.63 HR/9 rate), but he ranked considerably higher in terms of exit velocity on grounders.

It’s been an up-and-down ride for McGee both in terms of health and bottom-line results since he established himself as a big league regular back in 2012. But the overall body of work is impressive, as he’s logged a combined 3.06 ERA with 10.4 K/9 against 2.4 BB/9 in 329 2/3 innings over that six-year span.

At present, it’s not clear how the Rockies view the back of their bullpen taking shape. McGee has served as a closer in the past and could be asked to take the ball in the ninth inning most often for the Rox in 2018 and beyond. Shaw, who also has agreed to a three-year deal, is no stranger to high-leverage innings himself, having served as an eighth-inning setup man in Cleveland for several years.

Colorado GM Jeff Bridich and his staff may not yet be done adding to the bullpen, either. The Rockies have been linked to Zach Britton, Wade Davis and Greg Holland over the past few weeks, and while they’ve certainly spent aggressively to bring McGee and Shaw into the fold, they’re still somewhere in the vicinity of the payroll mark at which they opened the 2017 campaign. If ownership is willing to spend a bit more with a playoff berth in the rear-view mirror, the Rox could yet make further additions to the ’pen or elsewhere on the roster.

Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported the signing (via Twitter). Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic had tweeted that rivals anticipated the move. SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo (Twitter links) and Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (links to Twitter) had contract details.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Share 0 Retweet 1 Send via email0

Colorado Rockies Transactions Jake McGee

Angels Sign Zack Cozart
Main
Astros Sign Hector Rondon
View Comments (28)

Comments

  1. flyfisher64

    5 years ago

    Awesome!

    Reply
  2. pro4pro32goathletics

    5 years ago

    I was doing my physics homework, but then I saw this and threw my pen – well I guess I wanted him to sign with Oakland. Other guys like Abad or Duensing don’t look so satisfying.

    Reply
    • Kayrall

      5 years ago

      Deunsing is surprisingly satisfying, if he signs with the A’s you’ll be happy.

      Reply
      • wellhitball

        5 years ago

        Duensing for 1 year at about $4.5 million with a vesting option for 2019 sounds reasonable to me, but he could probably do better than that in this market. Any team that can afford to sit out this offseason is very fortunate.

        Reply
  3. John Nobles

    5 years ago

    Rockies are True Ace Away from being one of favorites in West right now being Dark Horse (agreements could be made for them to be 4th best team in NL right now)

    Reply
    • WalkersDayOff

      5 years ago

      They lost Chatwood. Also its impossible for them to land an ace in free agency. There aren’t many aces on the trading block at the moment either.

      Reply
      • John Nobles

        5 years ago

        Cole Archer Arrieta are all available

        Reply
        • WalkersDayOff

          5 years ago

          Those guys would not pitch like an ace at Coors field

        • John Nobles

          5 years ago

          That’s not point if Rockies traded for Archer and Colome I think they could be Arguably NL front runners

        • Red_Line_9

          5 years ago

          Clayton Kershaw doesn’t even pitch like an ace there. With the offense, all they need is league average of “Colorado Ace”….been done. Ubaldo Jimenez was a Cy Young candidate.

        • hiflew

          5 years ago

          Who would? Even Kershaw looks like a middle of the road starter at Coors.

        • Cubguy13

          5 years ago

          Archer is not necessarily available

        • brucewayne

          5 years ago

          Nor Cole!

    • hiflew

      5 years ago

      I am happy with Jon Gray as the ace of the staff. I don’t think they necessarily need an ace quality, but I do think they need a solid veteran starter as an on field leader for the young rotation. CC Sabathia would be my #1 hope, but I doubt that happens. Perhaps they could get a Jason Vargas or Edinson Volquez though.

      Reply
      • tpad

        5 years ago

        The Rockies don’t need a veteran starter like that. That’s just a disaster waiting to happen. The young group they’ve assembled is going to be more than passable. With a consistent offense last year they could’ve won 100 games, finding a reliable hitter not named Blackmon, Arenado, or LeMahieu is way more important than finding starting pitching.

        Reply
        • hiflew

          5 years ago

          I disagree. The Cubs didn’t take the next step forward until they signed Jon Lester. The Astros would not have won last year without Verlander. The Rox need someone on the staff that can be part player, part confidant, part coach. Someone they can talk to and learn from without fearing losing their spot.

          Although I do agree that they need another hitter as well. I am still holding out hope for Lucroy, but who knows. A very important help would be a rebound season from Story and/or Desmond. Story could be written off as a sophomore slump and Desmond missed ST and the first month of the season so he never really had a chance to get going.

        • wellhitball

          5 years ago

          How about the Rockies trading for Verlander? He’s pitched 1 game at Coor’s over the past 3 years and he went 6 IP, struck out 9, and gave up 1 run. Obviously I’m not saying he’ll replicate that but it’s nice to know his pitches didn’t automatically turn into beach balls at a higher altitude.

    • dynamite drop in monty

      5 years ago

      Maybe this is the season where David Nied finally steps up!

      Reply
      • vtadave

        5 years ago

        Or they get some value out of Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle.

        Reply
    • BobbyJohn

      5 years ago

      The Rockies are a consistent offense away. Their pitching was just fine in 2017 and in need of a tweak, not an overhaul.

      But outside of Arenado and Blackmon, the offense is WAY below average, and barely average when you add those two in.

      Reply
  4. Oriolenick

    5 years ago

    Hopefully with all these relief arms coming off the board the os can trade Britton and hopefully brach or Oday

    Reply
  5. swanhenge

    5 years ago

    Wow, big get for the Rox. Lots of teams in on McGee.

    Reply
  6. surefirewinners

    5 years ago

    The Red Sox better go after Tony Watson, the last upper echelon LH reliever available.

    Reply
    • brucewayne

      5 years ago

      Zach Duke is left.

      Reply
  7. TurkeyClubSamich

    5 years ago

    Hell to the YES! Let’s go Rox!

    Reply
  8. brewcrew08

    5 years ago

    Did I just read the deal could total up to $50M over 4 years? Holy overpay..

    Reply
    • JKB

      5 years ago

      Thats with performance bonuses that he has to meet and if he does it would not be an overpay

      Reply
  9. ldfanatic

    5 years ago

    Astros lost out on him. Was hoping he would be the lefty specialist.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Please login to leave a reply.
Log in Register

ad: 300x250_1_MLB

    Top Stories

    Blue Jays Sign Chad Green

    Rays Extend Yandy Diaz

    Dexter Fowler Announces Retirement

    Mets Sign Jeff McNeil To Four-Year Extension

    Red Sox, Marlins Swap Matt Barnes For Richard Bleier

    Darren O’Day Announces Retirement

    Royals To Re-Sign Zack Greinke

    Braves Extend Manager Brian Snitker Through 2025

    Rays Sign Pete Fairbanks To Extension

    Royals Sign Aroldis Chapman To One-Year Deal

    Athletics Sign Jesús Aguilar

    Orioles Acquire Cole Irvin From A’s

    Astros Name Dana Brown General Manager

    Rays Extend Jeffrey Springs

    Royals, Red Sox Swap Adalberto Mondesi For Josh Taylor

    Red Sox Designate Matt Barnes For Assignment

    Scott Rolen Elected Into Baseball Hall Of Fame

    Red Sox Sign Adam Duvall

    Brad Ausmus Reportedly Among Astros’ GM Finalists

    Mike Clevinger Under Investigation For Domestic Violence Allegations

    Recent

    Extension Candidate: Dylan Cease

    Mariners Win Arbitration Case Against Diego Castillo

    Mariners, Kyle Tyler Agree To Minor League Contract

    Dodgers Move Danny Lehmann To Bench Coach

    MLBTR Chat Transcript

    Reds Sign Jason Vosler To Minor League Deal

    Braves Sign Yolmer Sanchez To Minor League Deal

    Mets’ Khalil Lee Under Investigation Following Assault Allegations

    Read The Transcript Of Our Chat Hosted By Former MLB Outfielder Chad Hermansen

    Dodgers, Matt Andriese Agree To Minor League Deal

    MLBTR Newsletter - Hot stove highlights in your inbox, five days a week

    Latest Rumors & News

    Latest Rumors & News

    • Offseason Outlook Series
    Trade Rumors App for iOS and Android

    MLBTR Features

    MLBTR Features

    • Go Ad-Free
    • Projected Arbitration Salaries For 2023
    • 2022-23 MLB Free Agent List
    • MLB Player Chats
    • Transaction Tracker
    • Extension Tracker
    • Agency Database
    • MLBTR On Twitter
    • MLBTR On Facebook
    • Team Facebook Pages
    • How To Set Up Notifications For Breaking News
    • Hoops Rumors
    • Pro Football Rumors
    • Pro Hockey Rumors

    Rumors By Team

    • Angels Rumors
    • Astros Rumors
    • Athletics Rumors
    • Blue Jays Rumors
    • Braves Rumors
    • Brewers Rumors
    • Cardinals Rumors
    • Cubs Rumors
    • Diamondbacks Rumors
    • Dodgers Rumors
    • Giants Rumors
    • Guardians Rumors
    • Mariners Rumors
    • Marlins Rumors
    • Mets Rumors
    • Nationals Rumors
    • Orioles Rumors
    • Padres Rumors
    • Phillies Rumors
    • Pirates Rumors
    • Rangers Rumors
    • Rays Rumors
    • Red Sox Rumors
    • Reds Rumors
    • Rockies Rumors
    • Royals Rumors
    • Tigers Rumors
    • Twins Rumors
    • White Sox Rumors
    • Yankees Rumors

    ad: 160x600_MLB

    Navigation

    • Sitemap
    • Archives
    • Feeds by Team

    MLBTR INFO

    • Advertise
    • About
    • Commenting Policy
    • Privacy Policy

    Connect

    • Contact Us
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • RSS Feed

    MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

    hide arrowsFOX Sports Engage Network scroll to top
    Close

    Desktop Version | Switch To Mobile Version