Chicago Cubs Nearing Deal With Koji Uehara
By Joe Piazza
Yesterday the Chicago Cubs acquired Wade Davis from the Kansas City Royals. Today, they are close to signing another excellent reliever in Koji Uehara.
This news was first reported by Nikkan Sports (in Japan) by way of Evan Drellich:
Source says Koji Uehara indeed on the brink of signing with the Cubs, although deal may not be final. Reported here: https://t.co/PUIdseiGeT
— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) December 8, 2016
The deal is said to be for 1 year at $4.5M. This is great price to pay for what Koji Uehara can provide. He posted a 3.45 ERA last season, which was his highest since his debut. Still, he carries a lifetime 2.53 mark across 437.2 innings in the Major Leagues.
Uehara posted a K/9 rate of 12.06 last season, which was good for 13th among relievers (minimum of 40 IP) in ’16. One issue is that he had an increase of fly balls than usual in 2016. This resulted in his HR/FB rate more than doubling from 5.4% to 13.3% since 2015. Assuming he can revert back to his ground ball-inducing ways, Koji Uehara is primed for a bounce back season.
Every buy-low contract comes with risk.
It is worth noting that Uehara missed time last season with a pectoral strain, which makes him a bit of an injury risk. In addition to that, he will be 42 in April. Still, teams likely aren’t thrilled by the idea that they could be facing some variation of Wade Davis, Uehara, Mike Montgomery, Pedro Strop, and Hector Rondon when playing the Cubs.
For every winner there is a loser, and the loser in this potential signing is the Boston Red Sox. They had a very unreliable bullpen last year, and now it’s looking like Koji won’t be back. Since they just gave up their top prospect in Yoan Moncada to acquire Chris Sale, I doubt team ownership wants to trade away more talent. Kenley Jansen will cost teams an arm and a leg (plus a first round pick), which probably rules him out.
Next: Cubs, Royals Swap Jorge Soler for Wade Davis
This is somewhat of a low key move, but don’t let the “small” sum of $4.5M fool you. If not for the fact that Uehara is about to be 42 years old, he would be getting Jonathan Papelbon money. Meanwhile, the Chicago Cubs have gotten another piece to solidify their bullpen for 2017.