It’s no secret that the New York Mets had arguably the worst bullpen in the MLB last season, and they have done quite a bit recently (Read: yesterday) to improve their awful situation in the late innings. The Mets signed two former Blue Jays relievers in Frank Francisco and Jon Rauch. The tall lefty was given a one-year deal worth $3.5 million, while Frankie was given two years and $12 million. Neither of them are better than Ramon Ramirez; the reliever whom the Mets recently acquired in a trade with the San Francisco Giants. I’m not going to make this post about why nearly all relievers- especially closers- are overpaid, because Francisco and Rauch are overpaid in terms of the marginal value that they provide as relievers. However, they aren’t quite as bad when measured up against recent deals given to closers (Matt Capps).
Frank Francisco used to close for the Texas Rangers as recent as 2009, but he is rarely durable and had Tommy John surgery in 2005. However, he is a solid reliever who owns a career 3.59 FIP and was worth 1.1 WAR in 2009. He was worth just 0.5 WAR last season, but that’s respectable for a reliever who only pitched in about 50 innings. He is a low-cost closer, but he is a comparatively low-quality closer. But then again, $6 million doesn’t buy you what it used to.
Using the recent one-year deal given to Matt Capps as a point of reference, it’s easy to see why this is actually a decent move for the Mets. I don’t think anybody wants to suffer through watching Bobby Parnell continue to give up runs at the end of ballgames, and Francisco is like Billy Wagner compared to Parnell. The Mets needed bullpen help, and they didn’t overpay on Francisco when this deal is compared to the usual deals given to closers. It is overpriced in terms of value, because Francisco is really a 1 WAR player. However, giving $6 million a year to Francisco is way better than giving $4.75 million to a marginal player such as Capps.
The whole Matt Capps comparison brings up an interesting point, and that’s trade value. While I doubt anybody will pull a Bill Smith and give up a top prospect for Frankie, the point remains that teams do overpay for closers and some are willing to spend more on one than the Mets. Not only that, but they will give up a semi-valuable prospect. Teams get desperate for bullpen help down the stretch, and there’s no telling what the Mets could get in exchange for a year-and-a-half of Frank Francisco. Again, I doubt they get Wilson Ramos, but there is added value here in this deal. It isn’t much and the likelihood is low, but the Mets are a team who need prospects and relief help. This signing was definitely a relief for the bullpen, but it could also pay dividends down the road in the farm system and yield a decent crop.
Bad puns aside, signing Frank Francisco was almost a must. The Mets couldn’t realistically even compete without some level of competence in the ninth, and Francisco is a relatively low-cost reliever who provides about 1 WAR in value. Really all relievers are overpaid, but this is a good deal for the Mets, as players such as Ryan Madson were poised to make $11 million a year over four seasons. That’s ridiculous, of course, even if Madson is the better pitcher. I mean, they are both relievers and the amount of innings of better baseball pitched between both leads to maybe a 0.5 WAR difference in value. Yeah, Madson’s not twice as good as Frank Francisco.
I’m not as big of a fan of the deal given to Jon Rauch, but the Mets do need all the bullpen help they can get. While Peter Moylan is the better pitcher, I would rather have Rauch than D.J. Carrasco and a couple of the other guys in their ‘pen. Rauch provides some quality depth, and a value of a little under 0.5 WAR is really enough to help the Mets.
$3.5 million is still about $1 million too much for Rauch, but he isn’t exactly criminally overpaid either. Depth guys in the bullpen shouldn’t make that much money, and unlike Francisco, Rauch doesn’t have any realistic trade value. I do like the Frank Francisco signing, but I’m not as big of a fan of the deal given to Rauch. Just because I don’t like it as much doesn’t mean I think it’s a bad deal, because I’d rather have the mediocrity of Rauch in the bullpen than watching innings wastefully given to bottom-feeders. You really can’t make a “bad” one-year deal, even though the Mets did spend a little too much on Rauch. But as said before, relievers are overvalued right now which makes this deal a little below average. I understand that the Mets need relief help, but they did give him just a little too much overall. I don’t see him being worth his contract next year, and he will realistically be worth around 0.3 WAR. However, I would take that over the level of incompetence displayed collectively by the bullpen in 2011. Sometimes, money is needed to keep a bullpen from being embarrassing; it’s a pride issue, and nobody should be subject to the torture of watching the Mets 2011 bullpen.