It's a rather commonplace for players—in particular, pitchers—to cash in on productive seasons. For instance, Scott Kazmir and Scott Feldman both landed multi-year contracts this offseason that few could have predicted before their respective 2013 seasons.
That said, remaining free-agent Ubaldo Jimenez has yet to receive the love he deserves.
Jimenez enjoyed his finest combined surface and peripheral campaign since 2010, posting a 3.30 ERA (versus a 3.43 FIP), 1.33 WHIP and 2.43-to-1 strikeouts-to-walks ratio over 182.2 innings.
But it was really the right-hander’s second half that was acutely impressive. Jimenez tossed a 1.82 ERA (versus a 2.17 FIP), 1.14 WHIP and 3.70-to-1 strikeouts-to-walks ratio after the All-Star break.
Likely due to his dominant second half, Jimenez is expecting a multi-year contract worth $14 million annually, according to Fox Sport's Ken Rosenthal.
At that rate—and assuming Jimenez could garner a multi-year deal—the to be 30-year-old would eclipse Ricky Nolasco’s new annual earnings of $12.25 million. Even though Jimenez collected a 3.2 fWAR in 2013, is the pitcher actually worth his lofty asking price?
Per Steamer, Jimenez is projected to post a 2.5 WAR in 2014. Of the 16 free-agent starting pitchers signed this offseason, only seven are projected to post a 2.0-plus WAR next season.
Name | Team | Yrs | Total $ | $ / Yr. | ‘14 Steamer WAR Proj. |
Hiroki Kuroda | New York Yankees | 1 | $16,000,000.00 | $16,000,000.00 | 3.4 |
Scott Kazmir | Oakland Athletics | 2 | $22,000,000.00 | $11,000,000.00 | 2.6 |
Ricky Nolasco | Minnesota Twins | 4 | $49,000,000.00 | $12,250,000.00 | 2.4 |
Dan Haren | Los Angeles Dodgers | 1 | $10,000,000.00 | $10,000,000.00 | 2.2 |
Josh Johnson | San Diego Padres | 1 | $8,000,000.00 | $8,000,000.00 | 2.1 |
Scott Feldman | Houston Astros | 3 | $30,000,000.00 | $10,000,000.00 | 2.1 |
Bartolo Colon | New York Mets | 2 | $20,000,000.00 | $10,000,000.00 | 2.0 |
The bad news for Jimenez, however, is that the above pitchers only garnered an average two-year, $22.1 million contract amongst the seven of them.
Nolasco poses as the closest comparison to Jimenez, as Steamer projects that the right-hander will post a 2.6 WAR. Nolasco’s career, more or less, mirrors Jimenez’s, too.
Name | Career IP | Career GS | Career ERA | Career FIP | Career fWAR |
Ricky Nolasco | 1312.2 | 212 | 4.37 | 3.76 | 20.0 |
Ubaldo Jimenez | 1275.2 | 211 | 3.92 | 3.78 | 23.6 |
Since Jimenez rejected the Cleveland Indians’ qualifying offer, the pitcher is already at a bigger disadvantage than fellow starter free agents like Matt Garza and Bronson Arroyo. But if a prospective team bites the draft-pick bullet to sign Jimenez, they shouldn’t budge higher than $12.5 million per season for the pitcher's services.
All statistics, including Steamer, sourced from FanGraphs.com.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
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