January 17, 2007
It Pays to Be a Putz
The Mariners locked up J.J. Putz today for three years:
J.J. Putz cashed in on his breakout debut season as the Seattle Mariners closer, agreeing Wednesday to a $13.1 million, three-year contract.
Putz gets a $1.5 million signing bonus plus base salaries of $2.2 million this season, $3.4 million in 2008 and $5 million in 2009. The Mariners have an $8.6 million option for 2010, with a $1 million buyout.
Putz had 36 saves - the fourth-highest total in a Mariners season - in 2006, his second full season in the major leagues. The hard-throwing, 29-year-old right-hander entered the year as setup man to Eddie Guardado, before Guardado taught Putz how to grip a split-fingered fastball for better movement during spring training.
It took Putz a long time to catch on in the majors, but his big league numbers are even better than his minor league stats, especially in walks and strikeouts. He's not young, but it's not a lot of money for a good pitcher these days. It's less than what Lidge is getting, and right now Putz is the better pitcher.
You are right. The Mariners got a good deal signing Putz for that amount. He was very good in the closing role last year. There are not a lot of save opportunities with the Mariners as they are seldom ahead in the 9th inning, but when they were JJ came through. The Red Sox would be a lot better off with JJ Putz than Joel Pineiro. Pineiro as a closer has disaster written all over it.
I wouldn't write off Lidge yet. Putz put up a pretty ridiculous line last year, but where did it come from? K/9 went from about 6.75 to 12, while BB/9 went from 3.45 to 1.5. That's insane. What in the world did he fix?
On the other hand, Lidge was pretty much in line with past performance. His strikeouts were there, he just walked a few more people than normal. And when he let people on, he paid for it.
There's a ton of variance in 70 innings. Putz is going to allow more than 4 HR next year, and Lidge probably won't allow 10 again. Lidge won't suffer as much next year when he walks people; I think he had pretty bad luck this year.
My only hope is that Lidge "struggles" in April (while maintaining historical K rate) and ends up on the Red Sox.
And for what it's worth, if the Sox could have signed Putz for that same deal, they would have in a heartbeat. I can only assume that wasn't an option, as I think they'd have actually been perfectly willing to offer something like $18 for 3 years for him. Maybe more.
I am sure the deal wasn't an option for sox or they would have taken it in a NY minute. Ah, sox probably wouldn't like reference to NY minute... Seriously I am sure they would have signed JJ if they had the chance. Putz picked up another pitch last year, a split finger to ga along with his triple digit fastball and that made a big difference in his numbers. He became a lot more effective after he developed that extra pitch. I think his numbers will continue to be what we saw last year. Too bad he won't be doing it in a sox uniform.
Putz is far from free agency. This was a deal to avoid salary arbitration. There was no way the Sox could have signed him. They aren't entitled to a shot at every single player, you know.
As for Lidge, he's broken. See 2005 playoffs for why.