Phillies sign veteran reliever Chad Durbin to one-year deal
On Monday morning, the Phils front office added its second veteran arm this winter to the beleaguered, mostly-green bullpen. The Phils have reunited with veteran righthander Chad Durbin on a one-year contract that includes a team option for 2014.
Phillies sign veteran reliever Chad Durbin to one-year deal
Ryan Lawrence
The Phillies lost 16 games last season that they had led in the 7th inning or later in 2012.
Despite signing Jonthan Papelbon to the richest contract for a reliever in baseball history, the rest of the bullpen was a collection of not-ready-for-prime time pitchers. A combination of injuries and ineffectiveness among the relievers was as big of an issue as any other for the Phillies.
On Monday morning, the Phils front office added its second veteran arm this winter to the beleaguered, mostly-green bullpen.
The Phils have reunited with veteran righthander Chad Durbin on a one-year contract that includes a team option for 2014. The deal was first reported by MLB.com.
According to ESPN.com, Durbin will make a guaranteed $1.1 million in 2013 and can earn an additional $300,000 in incentives.
Durbin, now 35, first joined the Phillies prior to the 2008 season. He was a vital cog in the team’s bullpen during their championship run that season and went 11-7 with a 3.62 ERA in 194 games with the Phils from 2008-10.
Durbin spent the last two seasons with Cleveland and Atlanta. He was 4-1 with a 3.10 ERA in 76 games with the Braves last season, striking out 49 while walking 28 in 61 innings.
Durbin is the second veteran reliever signed by GM Ruben Amaro Jr. this offseason, joining setup man Mike Adams. Adams and Durbin join a pen with Papelbon and lefty Antonio Bastardo.
The aforementioned collection of youngsters, led by Phillippe Aumont, Justin De Fratus, Mike Stutes and Jeremy Horst, figure to compete for the final three spots in the pen this spring.
Durbin's deal with the Phillies is pending a physical.
loveable guy that warbiscuit— stoky- Durbs was solid.— TVGuy22
- While you never know what you are getting year to year with relief pitchers, I will take Durbin over what they have. He has to help. A big shortcoming of RAJ last year was the pen. Solid signing.— scootch
- Glad to see Durbin back. Don't know why they let him go in the first place as he was the most consistent reliever on the Phils for his years with them.— walt1
- Great move for needed depth. This guy is overlooked each year. Hopefully Frandsen gets to compete for the third base slot to start the year also. He's an excitable guy and had .834 OPS after the AllStar break last year. Wow!— gubbers97
- Durbin's last 7 appearances: 5.1 innings, 5 strike outs, 1 walk, 0 runs, 0 ERA.— escapedcamden4monterey
- Durbin sucked when he was here (remember game 4 of 2010 NLCS) and sucks even more now. Another dumb RAJ move.— BumSatellite
- I can't believe all the sheep thinking this is good signing. This guy has always been awful in pressure situations and has a career 4.95 with a 1.5 whip. Do you guys realize how dreadful that is? I'm gonna laugh when you guys start calling for his head in 3 months. Do you guys even remember the 2009 world series or the 2010 NLCS?— BumSatellite
walt1, it was his contract. He was a free agent and probably pulling more than he was worth. Now, at $1.1M he's worth a try.— John621- Bring back Jack Baldshun.— jimmymack
- I had been wondering why the Phillies hadn't picked up Durbin off the scrapheap. He's probably better than anyone they have in the bullpen after Papelbon, Bastardo and Adams.
— SteveS11 - Maybe Jose Mesa will be next?— SteveS11
- Claudio Vernight: "Go die already and give the rest of us here something good this off season to cheer about."
@stoky and @grazman: why don't you take the sugestion of your "tolerant" frend and co-imbecile— warbiscuit - I've got no issues with Durbin signing, but the manager is likely to bungle the bullpen unless he has all perfect flawless pitchers all perfectly suited for their roles (like he had in 2008) so expect to see continuing issues with bullpen so long as Chollie is handling it— warbiscuit
- LOL, what the moronic tool means is if Durbin works out "he told you so" if he doesn’t he was misused. Same thing the loser said last year about Qualls. The amazing Dopebiscuit is never wrong. Moron — DogBiscuitthedope
