Eno Sarris of The Athletic reports the New York Mets have come to an agreement to sign free agent RHP Rick Porcello. Jon Heyman of MLB.com reports it will be a one year, $10 million deal.
This comes a day after the Mets had signed Michael Wacha to a free agent deal and noted he was going to be a depth starter. Wacha is apparently going to prepare this season to be a starting pitcher along with Robert Gsellman and Seth Lugo. Perhaps this could be an indication other moves are being discussed or on the way as with the Porcello signing the Mets have five starting pitchers.
Porcello, 30, is a New Jersey native and a former Cy Young Award winner. Since winning the Cy Young in 2016, he has been roughly a league average pitcher with a 96 ERA+ over the last three seasons. Still, over that stretch, Porcello has been able to remain a healthy and reliable innings eater averaging 33 starts and 189.2 innings per season.
Last year was arguably Porcello’s worst year in the majors. The sinkerballer had career worst 5.52 ERA, and his 87 ERA+ and 4.76 FIP were the second worst of his career. Part of the problem there was the Red Sox poor defense, especially on the left side of the infield with Xander Bogaerts -21 DRS at short and Rafael Devers -6 DRS at third.
For a pitcher like Porcello who allows batters to pull the ball frequently that is a problem. By signing Porcello, the Mets are partially banking on Amed Rosario‘s 0 DRS in the second half last year is an indication of his breaking out defensively, and that Jeff McNeil can keep up the 3 DRS pace he had at third last year over the course of a 162 game season.
Of course, the issue with Porcello is Wilson Ramos was among the worst in the majors framing the low strike, and Porcello tries to live down in the zone. On that front, while the Red Sox defense was poor, their framing was excellent. As noted by MMO‘s Mathew Brownstein, the Red Sox were the fourth best framing team in the majors with Porcello a big beneficiary getting “the 13th-most pitches in the shadow zone (edges of strike zone) called for strikes in 2019.”
For a Mets team who have indicated they are not going to exceed the competitive balance tax threshold, the team is approximately right at that threshold with the team purportedly still looking to add relievers, a backup catcher, and depth across the board. As such, if the Mets make other moves, they may very well need to move salaries to accomplish those goals.
