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The New York Mets have dipped into the free agent market, signing former Blue Jays pitcher Shaun Marcum to a contract, according to Jon Heyman. The deal, pending a physical, will be for one year.

Last season, Marcum started 21 games for the Milwaukee Brewers, posting a 3.70 ERA, 4.10 FIP, 4.21 xFIP and 1.4 fWAR in 124 innings.

The 31-year-old right-hander will join a Mets rotation that includes Johan Santana, Jonathan Niese, Dillon Gee and Matt Harvey, with prospects Jenrry Mejia and Zack Wheeler waiting in the wings.

In his career, Marcum owns a 3.76 ERA, 4.24 FIP and 11.7 fWAR in 174 games for the Toronto Blue Jays and Milwaukee Brewers.

The Mets currently hold the 11th pick in this year’s amateur draft, even though their 74-88 record was the 10th-worst in baseball in 2012. Under normal circumstances, the Mets would have had the 10th pick, but they were bumped one spot lower because the Pirates failed to sign Stanford right-hander Mark Appel, who Pittsburgh picked eighth last June. The current system calls for teams that don’t sign their first-round pick the previous year to get a pick one spot lower the next year.

Had the Mets stayed in the top 10, the pick would be protected, and signing a free agent such as Bourn would result in them losing only a second-round pick.

evilRyu wrote:Speaking of the Mets, a very interesting appeal they are making to the Union regarding their draft pick and trying to get Michael Bourn:

The Mets currently hold the 11th pick in this year’s amateur draft, even though their 74-88 record was the 10th-worst in baseball in 2012. Under normal circumstances, the Mets would have had the 10th pick, but they were bumped one spot lower because the Pirates failed to sign Stanford right-hander Mark Appel, who Pittsburgh picked eighth last June. The current system calls for teams that don’t sign their first-round pick the previous year to get a pick one spot lower the next year.

Had the Mets stayed in the top 10, the pick would be protected, and signing a free agent such as Bourn would result in them losing only a second-round pick.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseb ... -1.1246372

Hendrix wrote:To tell you the truth, I'd rather have signed Marcum to a 1 year deal, and kept D'arnaud.

Mak wrote:

Hendrix wrote:To tell you the truth, I'd rather have signed Marcum to a 1 year deal, and kept D'arnaud.

Marcum can't pitch in AL East. He'd be our 5th starter at best. We would have a nice almost make the playoffs team, but at least we'd have D'arnaud to miss the playoffs with for a while. He'd be ready to play once Bautista and EE start to slow down. Sigh, i don't get that thinking. I'd rather have a chance at the WS over the next 2-3 years.

satyr9 wrote:

evilRyu wrote:Speaking of the Mets, a very interesting appeal they are making to the Union regarding their draft pick and trying to get Michael Bourn:

The Mets currently hold the 11th pick in this year’s amateur draft, even though their 74-88 record was the 10th-worst in baseball in 2012. Under normal circumstances, the Mets would have had the 10th pick, but they were bumped one spot lower because the Pirates failed to sign Stanford right-hander Mark Appel, who Pittsburgh picked eighth last June. The current system calls for teams that don’t sign their first-round pick the previous year to get a pick one spot lower the next year.

Had the Mets stayed in the top 10, the pick would be protected, and signing a free agent such as Bourn would result in them losing only a second-round pick.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseb ... -1.1246372

Really, I think the Mets have a fair point. Getting knocked down because Appel wouldn't sign anything reasonable, which takes you from bad enough to be protected to not is pretty weak and seems like extra pain and suffering. Also, PIT's 14th pick would've gone if they'd signed a big FA right? If so then the new rules aren't protecting 10 teams, which I believe was the idea.

Hendrix wrote:

Mak wrote:

Hendrix wrote:To tell you the truth, I'd rather have signed Marcum to a 1 year deal, and kept D'arnaud.

Marcum can't pitch in AL East. He'd be our 5th starter at best. We would have a nice almost make the playoffs team, but at least we'd have D'arnaud to miss the playoffs with for a while. He'd be ready to play once Bautista and EE start to slow down. Sigh, i don't get that thinking. I'd rather have a chance at the WS over the next 2-3 years.

Speaking of not getting a line of thinking. How can you say Marcum can't pitch in the AL East when he pitched here for 5 seasons with a 3.85 ERA and averaging 3.1 bWar/200 innings?

Marcum is not a 5th starter on our team. He's just as good/better than Buehrle, and far better than Romero was last year.

I don't think the line of thinking is all that hard to get. Imo Dickey may be 1 or 2 wins better than Marcum. However, I think it's quite possible that D'arnaud could actually make up those 1 or 2 wins himself next year. He probably wouldn't completely make up for the disparity between Marcum and Dickey, but would probably reduce the gap close enough that the difference would be negligible. And, I feel as though having control of a couple of top prospects in Synder, and D'arnaud is worth more than a negligable gap in wins.

Mak wrote:
Your point makes great sense if you think we'd get 2008 Marcum in 2013. Also i can make a pretty easy case that Buehrle is better than Marcum.

Hendrix wrote:

Mak wrote:
Your point makes great sense if you think we'd get 2008 Marcum in 2013. Also i can make a pretty easy case that Buehrle is better than Marcum.

Marcum's averaged a 3.62 ERA since coming back in 2010, including a 3.54 ERA year in the AL east in 2010. His velocity is just the same as 2008, and the last few years he's been just as good as 2008. So, I guess the point makes sense?

The only real knock on Marcum instead of Buehrle would be that with Buehrle you know you are getting 200 innings, and with Marcum you can really probably only expect 170 innnigs or something. And, that is valid. But, in terms of pitching I'd put Marcum right there with Buehrle, and maybe slightly ahead.


Lets just hypothetically say this year Marcum puts up 2.5 WAR, Dickey puts up 4.5 WAR, Thole puts up 0.5 WAR as a backup catcher, and D'arnaud puts up 1.5 WAR as a back up catcher. What would you rather have?

Hendrix wrote:The only real knock on Marcum instead of Buehrle would be that with Buehrle you know you are getting 200 innings, and with Marcum you can really probably only expect 170 innnigs or something. And, that is valid. But, in terms of pitching I'd put Marcum right there with Buehrle, and maybe slightly ahead.

Hendrix wrote:To tell you the truth, I'd rather have signed Marcum to a 1 year deal, and kept D'arnaud.

Randle McMurphy wrote:

Hendrix wrote:To tell you the truth, I'd rather have signed Marcum to a 1 year deal, and kept D'arnaud.

Marcum was a shell of his former self last year on the mound. Having watched many of his starts in 2012, I'll say that it wasn't pretty. He just didn't seem healthy at all (which makes sense, considering he missed over two months with an elbow injury).

With that in mind, it's no surprise that he got very little interest from GMs. Considering his injury issues and lesser 2012 form, he can't have been expected to produce anything close to what Dickey is going to for this team (for 2013 or for the next three seasons). I don't see anything to regret here.