Yankees decline Damaso Marte’s 2012 option
ByThe Yankees have declined their 2012 club option for Damaso Marte, the team announced today. This should not be a surprise as there was no chance they were going to bring the lefty back at $4 million after missing the majority of the last three seasons with shoulder troubles. He will receive a $250,000 buyout instead.
The Yankees signed Marte to a three-year deal worth $12 million after the 2008 season, a rather curious decision since they could have simply picked up his $6 million option for 2009 and avoided a long-term deal. He gave them just 31 innings during the life of the contract (6.39 ERA), and none this past season. On the bright side, he was pretty awesome in the 2009 playoffs, retiring all twelve men he faced in the ALCS and World Series. Just say no to multi-year contracts for relievers, folks.
Not Fun Fact: On a dollars-per-inning basis, Marte ($387k/IP) was a worse deal than Carl Pavano ($275k/IP). Yikes. Pedro Feliciano will fill the designated injured LOOGY role next season.
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“When healthy he’s one of the best relievers in the game, and if you don’t believe me just ask Ryan Howard!”
Still worth it.
If the Yanks want to add another lefty they should go after Javier Lopez or Jeremy Afeldt, and not Darren Oliver. Oliver is a Type A and I’m assuming he’ll be offered Arb. Lefty relievers are not worth giving up a first round pick for, especially to the Texas Rangers.
Feliciano laughs at $/IP.
all the way to the bank.
that is pretty funny, outside of the 2009 playoffs, he was completely useless. the yanks basically paid him $1M per out in the 2009 playoffs. at least he made chase utley and ryan howard look silly on multiple occasions
If the Yankees were intent on losing a draft pick they probably should have went with Scott Downs. Probably would have avoided Feliciano and Soriano. Killing two birds with one stone. Hindsight is 20/20.
Choate would have been a good option as well.
No doubt, but he didn’t cost a pick.
And that probably wouldn’t have stopped Levine from signing Soriano.
Downs was signed Dec 10th when we were still in the running for Cliff Lee. There is no way we could have signed Downs. Soriano was our ridiculous replacement for not signing Lee.
Hindsight may prevail, but honestly, there was nobody that was advocating last offseason that Downs was a better option than Soriano.
Timing was off. I don’t remember anyone advocating for Soriano though. Correct me if I am wrong. It came as a shock to me.
It was a hypothetical anyway. Hindsight 20/20 and all.
No, other than Levine, nobody was even thinking Soriano from what I remember. On the other hand, while some were ticked about losing our 1st rnd pick AGAIN and about the stupidity of the yr-by-yr contract, nobody was upset with having Soriano in the pen.
I still think he could revert back to pre-2011 form. He had a rough year with an injury no doubt, but he’s always been better than what he threw together this year.
I think he can turn it around too. The back-end of the bullpen would look insane if he had a good, full, healthy year.
all worth what he did in 2009…he was as nasty as a 10 cent hooker on double coupon night.
DamnAssHole Marte is what Ryan Howard calls him.
as nasty as a 10 cent hooker on double coupon night.
Have to remember that line …
Wow, that fact stings. But for a team like the Yankees, it really isn’t a big deal. Flags fly forever
Loogys officially overrated. Logan can’t get lefties out and Wade and DRob are great against them.
Don’t spend any more money on a loogy….
You can’t count DRob in the mix when considering a loogy since he’s the setup man and has a dedicated role.
Wade vs Logan is no significant difference vs LHB. BAA is 246 vs 260. Nothing huge. If you want someone good, get Choate with his 145 BAA vs LHB.
In the AL East, having a lockdown loggy is undervalued. Boston alone has 4 quality LHB (3 if you really think Crawford will continue to suck). There are times in a game when these guys will come up and we need a huge K, a good loogy can make that happen.
You had mentioned Feliciano as next year’s LOOGY—- he’ll be the highest dollar per inning pitcher for the Yanks because he is out all of next year too. Basically it’s “infinity” dollars per inning for another reliever. Stick with Logan and use him taht way next year. With Joba coming back, they have enough arms. Worst case scenario: see if MArte has anything left by inviting him to spring training without a guaranteed contract