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| Kei Igawa has been a huge failure for the Yankees (NYT) |
The Yankees withdrew Kei Igawa from trade waivers before Tuesday's 2 p.m. ET deadline, ending conversations between the teams about a deal involving the left-handed pitcherSigh. Even MLBTradeRumors' Tim Dierkes was "disappointed" at the time. And he had the foresight to see the Yankees had no room for Igawa at the Major League level anyways. Igawa pitched a little better in his last two appearances of 2007 and got into two games in 2008, giving up 6 earned runs in the process. He was then sent to the minors where he's stayed to this date. Igawa is still signed through 2011, but even after being setting the record for most wins in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre history, Igawa was bumped from the Triple A rotation until recently.
The Padres were awarded the waiver claim to Igawa on Friday, and at that point, there were three possible resolutions -- the Yankees could have simply handed the pitcher (and what is left of his five-year, $20 million contract) to the Padres; the Padres and Yankees could have worked out a trade, which they talked about in July and continued to discuss over the weekend; or the Yankees had the option of withdrawing Igawa from waivers. The Yankees chose the latter option, in the hopes of rebuilding Igawa for the 2008 season.
In Spring Training Joe Lapointe of the New York Times wrote that Igawa was working to the be the pitcher the Yankees thought he was but even then it was clear that Igawa had fallen so far on the Yankees' depth charts that a call-up was pretty much a pipedream away. So as Igawa toils through another season in the minors (with one more to go at another $4 M), we look back at the anniversary of the date that the Yankees had a golden opportunity to sink a sunk cost and let Igawa go to the Padres. They decided not to and the rest, as they say, is history.
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I might have to rate this the worst signing in Yankee history. At least guys in the 1980's played on the Major League level. They basically paid $45mm for a minor league pitcher. Yikes!
ReplyDeleteNow to find out they could have let him go anyway, lets just say BRUTAL!
I still think it's a toss up between Igawa and Carl Pavano. Pavano probably produced a little more on the field than Igawa (although both guys produced very, very little overall). Pavano just gets my vote as the worst contract because of how he acted like a complete ass. The injuries, the lying, the lame excuses. The kicker is how comparatively well he has pitched for Minnesota. It's clear he just didn't want to compete for the Yankees, despite the $39.95 million they gave him.
ReplyDeleteYou can never say that Igawa didn't try hard, or that he didn't want to pitch. The Yankees simply overestimated how good he'd be in MLB.
I agree with Jay that Pavano was a bigger disappointment, but Igawa's stubborness on the mound to adjust to American hitters has not shown much to me. At some point, throwing a mediocre fastball up in the zone is going to get you creamed in the majors and Igawa never was able to make that adjustment. I just wish they'd let him go in 2007...
ReplyDeleteAnd of course, I check out the Yankees Triple A blog for the local paper (http://blogs.thetimes-tribune.com/yankees/?p=6701) and Igawa was great last night:
ReplyDelete"Kei Igawa was terrific, striking out seven and throwing just 15 balls among his 75 pitches. He shut out Pawtucket over 5 2/3 innings."
No doubt Pavano was a bigger disappointment because he just didn't seem to care and seems to be doing just fine now that he has collected his big Yankee paycheck. Kei Igawa just isn't very good and probably shouldn't even be a disappointment since those of us who had a brain should have realized that he probably wasn't going to be very good (the Yankees deny it but they just wanted to try to match the Red Sox after they blew away the competition for Matsuzaka). For those of us who didn't realize his lack of talent when the Yankees signed him, we probably should have realized it when he wore sunglasses during his first Major League start and couldn't throw any pitches below the letters. Apparently pitchers in Japan aren't used to pitching outdoors, nor are they used to have mediocre fastballs up in the zone being hit fair.
ReplyDeleteI was actually at Igawa's one shining moment as a Yankee back in 2007, when he came out of the bullpen to relieve an injured Jeff Karstens and shutout the Sox for several innings before Farnsworth and Mo closed it out.
Also, you have to wonder that with only one more season on his contract if they simply just negotiate a buyout at this point. No point in wasting a roster spot, especially if he's not going to get called up.
ReplyDeleteThere's no such thing as a "buyout" in baseball. He either gets released or stays. At this point (meaning since he's in the minors), I think it makes more sense to just have him stay and be extreme depth.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct that there is no such thing as a "buyout" since all MLB contracts are guaranteed. However, teams have negotiated early contract terminations when it was favorable to both the player and the team (ex. Andy Morales, Drew Henson, etc). In most of these cases, it's the player who will benefit from being let go from his contract and team letting the player go has nothing to lose by letting that player go.
ReplyDelete