There have been quite a few big league veterans that have decided to attempt a comeback this season. Dontrelle Willis led the charge, but others like Matt Capps are also inking minor league deals hoping that they still have the stuff to pitch in the bigs. The most recent pitcher on the comeback trail is Joe Blanton. MLB Trade Rumors report that the Kansas City Royals have signed Blanton to a minor league deal.
Blanton, entering his age-34 season, hasn’t thrown a pitch since an abysmal 2013 campaign with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. He tossed 10.1 innings of Triple-A ball in 2014 for the team that originally drafted him. The 6 foot 3 right hander was lit up as the Pacific Coast League is not the best place for a pitcher to try and find his groove.
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Blanton was the 24th overall pick in the first round of the 2002 draft by the Oakland Athletics. This was the time that the As appeared to be a pitching factory, pumping out big league careers of Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, Barry Zito and Dan Haren to name a few. That set up high expectations on Blanton to continue in their footsteps. Ranked the No. 43 prospect in the minors by Baseball America heading into 2004, the sky was the limit for Blanton.
Blanton would never come close to those lofty aspirations. His rookie season in 2005 would be his best year as he would go 12-12 with a 3.53 ERA and a 1.22 WHIP. His ERA and WHIP in that season that saw him finish 6th in the Rookie of the Year voting would set his career highs for his 10-year stint in the bigs.
He would continue to be a serviceable, .500, middle of the rotation pitcher, never achieving All Star honors, but going 1-0 in capturing a World Series ring with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2008. He would head to Los Angeles at the trade deadline in 2012, first the Dodgers and then the Angels in the offseason. Blanton was never the same.
His year and a half stint in Tinsel Town saw Blanton go a combined 4-18 with an ERA in the high-5s and a 1.50 WHIP. He allowed a disastrous 2 home runs per nine and 12.2 hits per nine ratio in his final 2013 season. Blanton was released by the Angels and signed in March of 2014 with the As. By April 2014, he was released and his career looked to be done.
The Royals are a curious fit as there rotation seems to be pretty set. Edinson Volquez is always a question mark and Jeremy Guthrieis not going to win you any Cy Young Awards but has shown a propensity for pitching at The Big K. A bad spring by either of those two still shouldn’t be enough to give Blanton an opening in the rotation. If Blanton is willing, he would provide solid depth at Triple-A should an injury arise or someone like Danny Duffy regresses in his first full season as part of the rotation.
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