Blue Jays (Once Again) Complete New-Look Bullpen With Francisco Cordero Signing
…and here I was, thinking that Alex Anthopoulos was done revamping the Blue Jays bullpen, after the team added Darren Oliver and Jason Frasor to the mix.
It looks as though the Blue Jays GM has changed gears after it became clear that the price to pay for quality starters (ie. Gio, Latos) was out of the team’s range; if you can’t go for a front-line starter, why not build the best bullpen possible? With the signing of 36-year old Francisco Cordero, AA might well have built the deepest bullpen in the AL East heading into the 2012 season, even if the starting rotation remains full of question marks. and the team missed out on giving Prince Fielder a ridiculous 9-year contract. I mean come on, really, Tigers. I love Prince, but 9 freaking years?
Cordero, a three-time all-star closer who put up a sterling 2.45/1.02 ERA/WHIP season in 2011, will join the Blue Jays bullpen in a one-year, $4.5 million deal, creating a experienced and versatile set-up crew behind newly-minted closer, Sergio Santos. He will also bring a wealth of closing experience to back things up should Santos wind up falling off the bus, with 327 successful save conversion experiences under his belt, but Cordero does not come to the AL East without his unique set of concerns. After all, this is a player who was coming off 37 saves last season, and didn’t find a job until now while his peers like Heath Bell were signed to much more lucrative deals. I’ll have more to say about that in a more detailed forecast.
Maybe there’s a reason why the Blue Jays were able to get him for a reasonable one-year deal, after all. This is a former elite reliever whose talents are on the decline with age, but hey, it’s not as if they Blue Jays are bringing him to take over for the closing job. Cordero will himself be backed by the likes of Oliver, Janssen, Frasor and Villanueva in the set up innings, giving the Blue Jays a markedly improved bullpen (at least on paper) from last season’s disaster. Remember, even Jon Rauch made $3.75 million last season – I’ll certainly take Coco for $4.5, even if he’ll be bringing his new-found reliance on his breaking ball to a hitter’s park the AL East be potential trade bait.
The deal isn’t quite official yet. The Blue Jays currently have no room on the 40-man roster, which means somebody is going to have to be the odd man out before this transaction is complete. Judging by the look of things now, especially with Luis Perez out of minor league options, that man might wind up being Jesse Litsch. We’ll find out soon enough.
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[...] I’d be a little worried), the team got their first look at the designated plan B, 36-year old Francisco Cordero. The result was successful, if not mixed: all of Coco Cordero’s outs came off a ball in play, [...]
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