Source: Willis agrees to one-year deal
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Source: Willis agrees to one-year deal
Matt Gelb, Inquirer Staff Writer
Dontrelle Willis once won Rookie of the Year and finished second in Cy Young voting. He's resurrected a career presumed done at age 26, and now he'll be asked to assume a role he's never filled before.
A major-league source confirmed the Phillies agreed to a one-year deal with Willis, pending a physical. His base salary, first reported by ESPN.com, will be less than $1 million. All of Willis' 13 appearances were starts in 2011 and 202 of his 205 career games are starts, but the source said he'll be reliever for the Phillies.
Willis posted a 5.00 ERA in 75 2/3 innings for Cincinnati in 2011, but the Phillies apparently saw enough to guarantee the lefthander a one-year contract for 2012.
The answer probably lies in his ability to retire lefthanders.
His career numbers against lefties are outstanding, holding them to a .200/.274/.288 slash line. In 2011, those numbers were even better, as lefties hit .127 with a .369 OPS against. He turns 30 in January.
Ruben Amaro Jr. said he wanted to add a lefthanded reliever at the winter meetings and Willis simply adds depth to a unit teeming with promise. The other advantage: Theoretically, if the Phillies needed a starter to slide into the rotation because of injury, Willis presents that backup plan.
The Phillies have now guaranteed contracts to three relievers -- Jonathan Papelbon, Jose Contreras and Willis. Contreras' health is still in question, but he is scheduled to begin throwing in January. Kyle Kendrick was offered arbitration. The remaining three spots in the bullpen will be filled by a handful of young arms. Figure Antonio Bastardo is a lock. That leaves Mike Stutes, Justin De Fratus, Phillippe Aumont, David Herndon, Michael Schwimer and Joe Savery to fight for two spots.
Have a question? Send it to Matt Gelb's Mailbag.
- maybe you should pop over to m-w.com & look up "dearth".
it does not mean the same as "wealth".— ekw555 - You guys make me laugh. You act like you're paying these athletes. I know what we can do...let's go back to the old days when we didn't spend money and lost talent to other teams because we were so cheap.
Tell the truth. You, like I, can't wait for April. I love these Phillies and still think they're the favorite to win. I know, they didn't...but it sure is fun isnt it?— joeibt - Someone better get out the monistat, whiskerbicuit's flared up again. Mad about spending the baseball equivalent of pocket change on a guy, mad about spending millions on a guy who hits home runs and drives in runs, where does it end? I bet you think you are just the 11 year old to run this team. Also your Aramis Ramirez love doesn't make a lot of sense. He's only one season removed from a .240 season. He's only an average fielder and in 13 years has only had 3 season where he played more than 150 games. I would have liked to have seen him as a Phillie too but it's not happening so stop whining. — SFPhillyphan
- i agree with warbiscuit. why people like ruben is a mystery. sign blanton and victorino to big contracts that no one else was offering but don't sign werth. trade for halladay then trade cliff lee, then have to trade prospects for oswalt. why didn't they sign beltre instead of polly. pass on velvarde who was going cheap. still don't have a lefty out of the bullpen. newsflash- bastardo is still not ready to do the job in the postseason. ruben was given a possible dynasty and has spun his wheels. i could think of more as i'm sure you could also. now he's filling the roster with a bunch of cheap mediocre players. he had better have a reason like he is signing both jimmy and cuddyer. or some trade for wright or yukelis. something this offense needs a real bat like cuddyer's
- ... So Willis is getting the $$$ Francisco would have gotten. Phils get a post-season experienced (and still not too old) lefty-spec, who can also do what Kendrick did last year, spot-start, ... and ... as Matt tweeted, a guy who also hit .387 in 31 NL AB's w/ Cinci !!! -- hey -- Gotta like this deal!
- Although this is somewhat low risk, I don't know about Willis in the pen. Don't have the stats in front of me, but if memory serves me he was never one of the best strike throwers. The last thing you want coming out of the pen is someone who can't consistently throw strikes.— DPL
- Against the Phillies this year, he totally lost the strike zone....Juan Perez was a 5 minute wonder this year until he walked the bases loaded and lost command..never to be heard from again. — bearsfriend
- His walk rate against lefties last year was 3.3 percent; his walk rate against righties was 15 percent. His strikeout to walk ratio against was 10-to-1 against lefties, 1-to-1 against righties (Compare that to J.C. Romero, whose strikeout to walk ratio against lefties was only 2-to-1.) This might not work, but there is plenty of reason to be optimistic. — phillyl0
- Optimistic? ...A club with a horrid pitching staff gives up on him, his era is 5.00, he's never really come out of the pen...and you're optimistic?...When pitchers lose command, it does not just result in walks...it results in trouble because then the pitcher lays it in there.. — bearsfriend
- I like it.— Clem
- Really?!! A TON!! (HTML deleted)— TerryW
- Two reasons RAJ is doing this: If it works, D-Train can come in for about 35-45 innings a year pitching mostly to lefties. He'll be a combination of Jesse Orosco and Fernando Valenzuela (an LHP who can handle the bat and be a very occasional PH) and might even extend his career for more years in this role. Also Dontrelle is a good friend of Jimmy Rollins.— BigPapiChulo
- D-Train is worth a shot as a situational lefty. I thought maybe they would sign George Sherrill. If Dontrelle makes a good transition to the pen, this buys Savery and Diekman more time in the minors, providing additional depth. Nice roll of the dice by Amaro.— Seeing Red
- DISLIKE!!!— TerryW
- Sure Warbiscuit, you're a genius, and the guy whose team had the best record in the bigs all year is an idiot. Your mom must be proud. Call up to her from the basement and ask her.— Section 730
