Caveat Emptor
By Mike Silva ~ November 17th, 2009. Filed under: Offseason Speculation.
Hearing the Mets may be interested in free agent Joel Pineiro makes me very leery. After all doesn’t life for a Cardinals pitcher end post Duncan?
The most recent example would be Jeff Suppan, a name that sends chills down every Mets fans spine. Suppan probably got his 4 year/$42 million dollar deal based on Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS. After putting up three pretty solid seasons in St. Louis (ERA+ of 109) he has yet to be even a league average pitcher in Milwaukee. During that same 06′ season Jeff Weaver won 3 postseason games after being dumped by the Angels. He hasn’t seen the same success since winning Game 5 of the World Series.
Another name Mets fans remember is Braden Looper. The failed closer turned around his career as a starter under Duncan putting up a decent 2008 campaign. Again the Brew Crew was fooled and signed him to a one year deal. Looper put up some of the worst numbers of his career in 2009.
One blast from the past is Matt Morris who was given a big contract by San Francisco off a solid 2005. To add insult to injury the cash strapped Pittsburgh Pirates traded for Morris two years later and go all of 16 starts out of him. That was just under a million bucks per start. Talk about overpaying! To be fair Morris suffered from injuries, but he wasn’t very good when healthy.
Not all players that left St. Louis go south. Todd Stottlemyre wasn’t terrible for Arizona and even Andy Benes had his moments.
Right now 3 years and $30 million sounds like a bit too much for a pitcher like Pineiro. Just two years ago he was dumped by Boston and had many baffled about how he shut down the Mets in late September of 2007.
When it comes to buying Cardinals pitchers on the free agent all I can say is caveat emptor.
To hear Howard Megdal and I talk about Joel Pineiro and other free agents you can download our podcast from Sunday.
November 17th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Mike, I think you are correct to have these concerns — I share them. If the Mets go down this path, I hope Pineiro takes what he learned from Duncan with him.