Rafael Soriano signs for 2006
DMZ · January 4, 2006 at 1:00 pm · Filed Under Mariners
There’s news! Yay! The M’s agreed to a one-year, $450k deal with Rafael Soriano.
We’re all huge Rafael Soriano fans here, and I have high hopes that he’ll decide to start this year and have a huge year that helps the M’s compete for the pennant. That would be sweet.
Also, as Dave points out in the comments below, Jae Seo’s been traded to the Dodgers in a nice little deal.
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Derek, have you been sippin the Pollyanna Kool-Aid lately?
First, you did the positive, best-case scenario breakdown for the ’06 season, now this? This is just too weird for me, man. Somebody make him stop! LOL!
This is weird, in that it was first reported a week ago. I remember seeing it on KOMO-TV news last Wednesday.
In other news, Jae Seo, he of the 2.65 ERA, 1.7 BB/G, 6.3 K/G, and 0.94 G/F rate, who made the league minimum last year, just got traded for Duaner Sanchez and Steve Schmoll, a couple of fungible middle relievers.
Jae Seo would be the Mariners second best starting pitcher. He was traded for the Dodger versions of Julio Mateo and Jeff Heaverlo.
The next time someone tells you that the team has to overpay for Washburn and Meche because there’s just no pitching available, punch them in the nose.
I have high hopes that he’ll decide to start this year
I too thought you were joking, but the point system in his deal suggests that the mariners may have him go back to starting. I say yay, as well!
(OT) What about this news ?
According to the NY Daily News, the Mets, Rangers and Padres are interested in free agent 2B Bret Boone.
#3 – Whoa, what in the world is Minaya doing? Is he competing directly with Jim Bowden for the “Most Incompetent GM” award? From what I’ve seen of Seo, I was quite impressed. I seem to remember him shutting the M’s down (possibly shutting them out?) in a start either last year or in 2004. Nice job, Dodgers.
Actually, offering a few hundred grand to Boone isn’t that bad of an idea, considering how bad Kaz Matsui has been, offensively and defensively.
Minaya literally is bringing in everything he can.
This really angers me as much as anything this offseason. Well, as much as I actually get “angry” over things like this at all.
Jae Seo is EXACTLY the kind of player we should have been trying to get for this team. We should have been in on the bidding for this guy and I”d love to know why we weren’t.
We should be going through every roster in baseball and targeting everyone like him. When we find one, like Jae, whose club clearly doesn’t value him, pounce.
I haas assumed we would be doing that. Clearly we’re not. So was that because our FO is no smarter than Minaya? Or is Minaya SO dumb that he didn’t even try to get the best offer?
Seriously, what a disappointment.
#5 – Just saw MLB.com, Bret Boone has signed a Minor League deal with the Mets.
Im still pissed that the Rangers picked up Padilla for a can of peanut butter…..
In all seriousness, Rafael Soriano’s one of my favorite players on the team, and I still think he’s got star potential in the rotation.
Thread says Rangers, should read Dodgers. Let’s not throw off the masses.
That’d be all we need is the Rangers getting cheap pitching.
What has Soriano been up to in winterball? Pitching out of the pen?
You think the M’s have scrapped the idea of him becoming a starter due to all the injury problems?
Assuming Soriano is healthy, I would not be surprised to see him closing by the end of the year.
#2– heck, the PI itself reported it a week ago…. maybe Sori just signed the paperwork this week.
#3–Jae Seo and left-handed reliever Tim Hamulack from the New York Mets to the Dodgers for right-handed relievers Duaner Sanchez and Steve Schmoll.
They certainly haven’t scrapped the idea — Soriano’s contract (see linked article, above) includes incentives for him to start.
Soriano a starter. That would be dreamy. I loooooove me some Soriano dealin’ wickedness to the AL West.
The incentives are about a wash either way. If they set up the contract so that each start was worth 3 points, then…
IMO, he’s more likely to reach his incentives by staying in the pen – pitching in 60 games as opposed to starting 30 times.
I think the point is that the FO are still open to it as a possiblity…one I would love to see.
18: True, they are probably a wash, but if it were decided he would not start ever again, there is no need for any points accumulated for starts. So, I’m still optimistic.
Seeing Soriano strike out 6 in row in his debut in person was almost (and I stress almost) as exciting as seeing the King’s debut in person.
Don’t get me wrong: I hope he starts more than anything (and I mean anything).
Soriano has just come off major surgery….what’s the liklihood the Ms would run him out there for a heavy number of innings? He’ll pobably be in the pen most of next season….
Derek, I too would love to see him as a starter, but does he have that third pitch yet? He has that fastball and slider, but last I heard he has still working on that changeup.
You’re thinking of Clint Nageotte (ba-da-boom).
Touche Derek. Nageotte jokes aside, did Soriano pitch enough last season to provide a reasonable basis to judge the effectiveness of his change up?
Derek, have you seen what Rafael did in the Dominican league? Does anyone know what was going on with him down there (besides, perhaps, needing more time to recover from TJ)?
Soriano has just come off major surgery….what’s the liklihood the Ms would run him out there for a heavy number of innings?
This is the M’s. Like 97%
Soriano, Nageotte, Foppert… put ‘em all in the rotation. Grab Blackley from the outback and start him too. Just kidding, of course. It would be nice if one of them, or Bazardo or someone not currently penciled in, surprised us in a good way in the #5 starter role.
27 – um, small sample size and all that, but Soriano’s been rocked in the Dominican League. RA of over 9, giving up 2 hits per inning, etc.
He’s been used out of the bullpen, so he doesn’t have that many innings pitched.
Probably not worth brewing some ‘special’ kool aid over, but it’s not exactly a great sign.
We used to mix Aftershock with Kool-aid back at the UW. We called it “Afterkool”. It would put you down quick, and if you were unlucky, you’d you’d wake up a year later with a cap on your head and a communications degree from WSU in your hand.
I’m not worried about Dominican results. Like the AFL, how you’re used, why, against who, how often… it’s all a crap shoot. If I’d heard reports that his control was awful, or he was heaving balls over the backstop, I’d be concerned. As it is, I’m going to wait for spring training.
Plus, he has come back super-fast from the surgery. If he’s a little yippy in the Dominican League a year off being cut open, that’s not so bad.
Isn’t pitching in the D-Leagues last year how Soriano got injured?
Considering Burnitz got nearly 7 million, the Everett signing doesn’t look as bad!
But still!
AQ: I have seen some of the most marginal pitching prospets shut down the M’s in recent years only to get blown up by Texas or Boston in thier next start. Shutting down the M’s hasn’t taken much the last couple years, just lack of familiarity.
That said Sao is a legitimately good young player that I’d trade Mateo and Heaverlo for any day (except the day after he gets injured).
Good luck to Boone (as long as it’s not here)
Soriano…He’s the closest thing we have to a Sherriff in the Pen and watching him close could be incredible. I think we need an energetic fireballer down there, but I’ve waited years to see Soriano start again. I thought he had the familiar issue of needing to work on a good offspeed pitch to start. Has his Change-up improved enough? I guess we’ll find out in the Spring…
Here’s to hoping Soriano makes $575,000 this year! (gulp of After-Kool)
31 – fair point. It’s a very small sample, and it’s not clear what he’s got to work with for a defense. But it appears he’s simply not blowing away inferior competition, which is what he used to do on the same team. If he was peppering the backstop with WPs, that would indeed be concerning, but then so is lower velocity. Obviously, that may be expected coming back from TJ – Mr. Foppert can testify to this. But if he’s NOT an ‘energetic fireballer’ then the M’s need a back up plan for a while. I think Soriano will be fine, but I just want to caution people who think it’s going to be like 2003 all over again come april.
Okay, maybe we can agree to hold off the launch of http://www.Soriano4Rotation.org until spring training so we can confirm (1) his health and (2) the effectiveness of his pitches.
Actually, that should apply equally to all of the M’s upper level pitching prospects.
who the heck would agree to run/pay for http://www.Soriano4Rotation.org anyway?
You’re right, of course, Marc…
His Velocity may not return but if that doesn’t affect his slider and he maintains good control with an 88MPH fastball he’ll still be good out of the pen. I don’t know about him closing or starting with that, but then he’d be similiar to Mateo and Guardado.
To say that that would be a step down for him is high praise
At some point don’t we need to get all our quad-A pitchers together and have some sort of Battle Royale where we end up with one or two good starters and a pile of dead guys?
#31: Derek, speaking as an actual graduate student in communications who teaches undergrads right now, that was hilarious.
#37: Can we apply the same standard to Jarrod Washburn?
Corco, the fine folks at buckybackers.com or hirambocachica.com probably have some spare time on their hands.
[how do you dupe a comment 15m later?]
I’m estatic to see we have Soriano coming back for cheap. But I too thought that he needed another pitch or two before he could start. (King Felix and a three-pitch Soriano in the rotation SWEET!)I remember he was unhittable in relief, so Lou moved him into the rotation — and he got shelled.
I remember he was unhittable in relief, so Lou moved him into the rotation  and he got shelled.
Wrong. The only time he started was for 8 games in 2002 after he had made 2 relief appearances. Two appearances is not enough to be considered ‘unhittable.’ And looking over his stats from those starts, I wouldn’t necessarily say he got shelled. In fact, he held his own pretty well for a rookie making the jump (I believe) from AA.
At some point don’t we need to get all our quad-A pitchers together and have some sort of Battle Royale where we end up with one or two good starters and a pile of dead guys?
But Soriano only got 8 starts, and they were all in his first year (2002) when he was 22. He gave up too many HR (1/start), but his ERA was only 4.5.
It was 2003 where he really did well. 40 appearances. 1.53 ERA. 5.67 K/BB ratio. He gave up one HR every 100 batters faced. He was more likely to hit you than he was to give up a homer.
And in his little splash in 2005, he was arguably even better. His K/BB ratio was 9.
#6
I was doing the same thing earlier with pitchers like Brazelton. he shut us down terribly that one time we went down to tampa.
however, it now seems like everyone and anyone could have done that to the M’s hitters that year.
still, Sao has put up MUCH better numbers than brazelton, but the fact he shut us down doesn’t prove anything.
-nate
Terrmel Sledge left sock,
Had for a price that is cheap,
Soriano starts.
Man, Ramon Santiago is now going to pick it up and throw it for Detroit again. And Lil Juan Gone is also back in the Tigers system. Did we get hosed in that deal or what?
We’re not paying Carlos Guillen $5 million to only play in a 100 games, play underwhelming defense, and post an empty .300 avg. That’s a not a bad deal. I’m happy with Betancourt now.
Betancourt could truly be the guy to make M’s fans forget about that Guillen give-away. But until now, yes, we got hosed Tommy, we got hosed.
I’m happy with Betancourt too, but certainly we could’ve gotten something slightly better for Guillen.
Indeed.
That’s why I feared the Yorvit give-away for the original PTBNL from the Rockies. But, it sounds as if Bavasi actually did well for once.
I don’t think Bavasi has been hosed in his trades. It’s his lack of imagination and crappy signings like Everett and Washburn that will doom him.
I don’t know that Bavasi would be here next year if he’d signed the top 2 FA’s(Giles+Millwood/Burnett) and traded half the farm away to get a good young SP. The M’s making the playoffs and drawing 3+million is probably the only way he’d be safe. Then again he hasn’t been fired yet, so we won’t know until it happens(or doesn’t)
Love to see Rafey Soriano start. Back when he got those 8, he was throwing mostly fastballs with an occasional slider mixed in; location needed some work, but he had velocity and good movement. Major leaguers sat on his pitches after a couple of innings so he gave up the HRs, but that was mostly the rookie pitching pattern. To me, Soriano becomes a closer _only_ if he’s still unable to mix pitches after most of a year starting. It may look ugly on occasion, but I think he’s worth the role if his arm is up to the workload.
And if it’s a Battle Royale among the remaining arms, remember the last ones standing will have to take out the FO at the end of it . . . that could be good.
Oh, so ERA’s a meaningful statistic, just so long as it . Seo’s previous ERAs, each from bigger samples, are 3.82 and 4.90. His career ERA is a not-exactly-stellar 3.85, and that’s in one of the better pitchers parks in the NL (Shea). Don’t get me wrong, he’s a good, cheap acquisition, but if you’re going to bang on about how Washburn’s coming off a year that’s out of line with, it’s completely disingenuous (i.e. actively dishonest) not to point out the same about Seo.
Career rates: 5.08 K/9IP, 2.00 K/BB.
The point wasn’t that Seo is great. The point was that, by any metric you want to use, Seo was clearly better than Washburn last year. Even with the Mariners 3.20 colored glasses, they should have been interested in Seo.
39: I’m not so sure about this: “His Velocity may not return but if that doesn’t affect his slider and he maintains good control with an 88MPH fastball he’ll still be good out of the pen.” I’m just not sure that Soriano can be effective as a Guardado type. I don’t really think he’ll need to try, mind you, but the results from the times that Soriano’s pitched with a 90MPH fastball are kinda terrifying. I’d just like to see the M’s hold tight and wait until his velocity returns before throwing him out there. That was the problem in 2004.
53: Even if you think Betancourt is the next Ozzie Smith, and even if you think Carlos Guillen is the worst player the M’s have ever seen fit to suit up, you’ve got to admit the trade itself was a crappy one. Maybe it’s good that he’s no longer here, but then why not have him play out his contract? As we’ve seen, there’s a market for basically everyone – if Bavasi can get good, interesting stuff for Yorvit Torrealba, why couldn’t he have picked up something – ANYTHING – we wouldn’t mind spending a 40 man roster spot on? Given what Guillen did in Detroit (which admittedly no one really expected), it’s among the most lopsided deals of the past 20 years.
59: I still remember watching Soriano match Rich Harden pitch for pitch in some epic AAA battles. He could start, or could have if these injuries hadn’t got in the way. At this point, I think the M’s would probably be wise to use him out of the bullpen for a year or so until they’re 100% sure that his elbow is healthy. Kind of like what they’ve done with Nageotte (back, elbow, whatever)…