The fine folks at have the news:
A non-tender candidate as tomorrow’s midnight deadline approaches, Mitre instead was tendered a contract by the Yanks and will sign for a $900,000 base salary. He can earn another $200,000 in incentives, Jerry Crasnick reported this evening. At that price, Mitre is a fine notch on the depth chart, but he was used sparingly in 2010. He made 27 appearances and threw 54 innings with a decent 3.33 ERA but just a 4.81 K/9 IP and a 2.7 BB/9 IP. He shouldn’t be anything more than the team’s seventh starter and should be among the first to go if they need a roster spot.
I had a discussion about this signing last night with excellent sportswriter Jonah Keri (as well as a followup discussion with @JoeRo23 and @PPinstripes, who helped hash out the ideas in this post), who that:
Yankees should never have to carry a bad player. And if they insist on being cheap at least be more creative than Mitre.
Basically, Jonah contends that the Yankees could address these bullpen slots in two ways. They can try and find undervalued fringe guys or AAA pitchers with good peripherals who can provide some upside, or they can spend more and bring in more talented depth players. Bringing back Mitre does not use either of these two strategies, and smacks of bringing back a replacement level player because they know what they are going to get from him. While Jonah’s comments are logical and definitely have some merit to them, I believe that he is making a number of assumptions that do not necessarily hold true:
1) Cycling through fringe guys who you think may have upside is better than signing one guy who is likely replacement.
Mitre is a known quantity, in that he is likely to provide the club with replacement level production. By contrast, most of the fringe/AAA guys Jonah refers to are unknown quantities, which is part of their allure but also a source of risk. Yes, you could immediately hit on someone who turns into an asset, but you could also run through a bunch of people before you found someone to give you replacement level production who can start, relieve, and who you do not mind treating pretty poorly (no regular work, constantly changing roles, etc). While Jonah’s solution is certainly more creative and provides more upside, the downside is greater as well. When your club is a likely 95 game winner, you do not need to gamble on upside in your mop-up role, and it may make more sense to settle on coming out even on that last bullpen slot.
2) That if you are willing to spend, you can build depth without touching upon bad players. That good players are willing to be “depth.”
Pitchers want to be given as much responsibility as possible for the most money possible. You are unlikely to get a player that is much better, or even marginally better, than Mitre to accept the role Mitre had this past season without paying him a large premium. At that point, it simply makes more sense to sign Mitre rather than play a marginally better player much more than he is worth.
I am not saying that Sergio Mitre is a good pitcher, nor am I comfortable concluding that Jonah’s contention is wrong. I am just suggesting that Mitre provides reasonable depth as the mop-up man and that replacing him with better talent is not as simple as it may seem, as Mike Axisa explains further at RAB. While we all want to see the Yankees be more creative, it may make more sense for them to stick with what they know, as boring as it seems.
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just threw million away plus goes in to the lux tax bottom line..this guy really must have girardi by the potato’s..why carry this guy and eat a roster spot …that mil could have went to Mo..a mil less to worry about giving Mo..
This comes up every year and it always has a glass half full/glass half empty feel to it, IMO. Half full sees the last spot in the pen as a chance to give some guys a chance to crack the bigs and maybe find a diamond in the rough. Half empty have a “why bother it’s the last spot in the pen and it means nothing” attitude.
Jonah looks at cycling through those fringe guys as a potential positive, as do I. There is always the chance you can catch lightning in a bottle and find an unexpected piece that can really help you. We’re not talking about calling up an Andrew Brackman to play the blow out role. We’re not talking about using legit prospects in a mop-up role. We are talking about guys who are maybe coming off an injury and are looking for a chance. Or possibly some younger guys who have some upside (all be it minimal) but are maybe stuck on the shuttle between the bigs and the minors or between Scranton and Trenton. I’d say those types of guys would much rather be treated poorly in the bigs than treated like gold in Scranton or Trenton, no?
And so what if i go through these guys like a stack of pancakes? After all we’re discussing the last spot in the pen on a 95 win team, aren’t we?
Because those guys could give you below replacement performance, and then you are eating into your 95 wins.
I would doubt any of guys being brought up in this discussion would be used and do poorly in situations that would eat into wins. And even if they were it would be minimal at worst.
While I’ve never been a big fan of his, I’d rather give him (or a player like him) under $1 mil than have to search for a guy like that when we need him. I think he’s better than a replacement level player.
I see it as a depth move, and having pitching depeth (even at a replacement level) is never a bad thing. Mitre isn’t good, but he’s not god awful either, so I don’t have a problem with this move. Also another way I look at it is it keeps those fringe guys available for trades (however small they may be). If they come up and bomb, then no one will even entertain the thought of them having potential. I think of guys like Steven Jackson, Anthony Claggett, Chase Wright, who were considered “fringe” guys with value, but once they got shelled in NY they had no value and were eventually waived.
The only real replacement from within right now anyway is either Nova or Noesi and why move either one of those guys into a mop up role and take away from their triple A development? I personally think this is a good move, you know what you are going to get, you keeps kids learning in the minors and if their are any troubles it’s an easy DFA and then you turn to Nova and Noesi like you would without Mitre in the first place.