The Pittsburgh Pirates announced their deal with right-handed pitcher Radhames Liz on Friday. Today the details were reported by Rob Biertempfel. The original deal was said to be for two years and $3 M. After some issues with his physical, the two sides reworked the deal and now Liz is signed for $1M over one year. As noted yesterday, Liz only has 0.133 days of service time, so he still has six full years before he hits free agency if the Pirates choose to hold on to him.
The 2015 payroll page is updated with Liz’s contract. We listed the contract of Francisco Liriano as $13 M for 2015, but the actual details of the deal have yet to be released. That number is based on the assumption that Liriano is getting paid $13 M each year of his three-year deal. If that number is correct for him, then the estimated payroll for 2015 is now just north of $89 M.
+ postsJohn started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball.
When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.
Wonder what the physical issue with Liz was? Makes the signing even more foolish, IMO.
Im not sure anyone can call any signing that costs a whopping 1 million “foolish”. He would have to stay healthy and suck all year while the team for no reason keeps him on the roster to come close to “foolish” at his price.
About 80% of healthy major league pitchers will have positive findings on MRIs, and this could be considered a finding during a physical.
It may not be arm related. He had a knee injury that caused him to miss half of last season. If the reports of him reinventing himself are true, then they may be willing to pay that amount to get him into the system and have control of him for six years despite whatever issue he has. I can’t imagine it being serious, otherwise there is no reason to sign him and let him start accruing MLB service time on the DL.
So Bucs agree to 2/3m with Liz, something shows in physical, Bucs say we’ll give you 1/1m or term deal telling rest of league you are damaged goods and Liz gets minor deal for stuggotts? Harsh but more $$$ than he’s made in career so no tears for Liz here. I presume MLB rules preclude him getting more than 15% pay cut in subsequent years so he is still getting good money for 30 year old out of Korean league. Reminiscent of Lirianos situation which turned out ok for all.
I’m waiting for Jeffrey Loria to announce what the Bucs real intentions were on this contract.
NSA: Remember Ryan Vogelsong? SP for the Bucs for about 5 years and could not get his ERA below 5 or 6. Goes to Japan for 2 or 3 years and gets picked up for peanuts by the Giants and he goes something like 27-16 with about a 3.00 ERA the first two years back in MLB – sometimes it happens for some guys later than others.
We are upwards of $89 mil? Where were we going in the discussions with McCarthy? Rumors were that the Bucs were in it right until the end. I think last year they were $76 to start and then upped that to $82 during the season. Were we thinking of starting around $100+ mil and possibly expanding that to $110 during the season?
Rumors said we were a finalist, which can be interpreted very differently than “in it until the end”. The moment we signed Liriano, we could have been 1 of 3 final teams and backed out, keeping us as a “finalist” yet nowhere near closer to getting him.
Cecil Fielder was a lost cause when he left for Japan. Spent a year getting his bat together and came back to be a King of the long ball, before leaving a Prince as his legacy.
They were reportedly only going to sign either Liriano or McCarthy not both.
59: That makes sense, and now that we are hearing that Charlie Morton thinks he will be ready by opening day, the Pirates may only have a few mil left to play with between here and April. Starting with a Rotation of Cole, Liriano, Burnett, and Morton, and a much better BP than 2014, the Pirates should have the horses able to give us a good start out of the gate.
That leaves Worley and Locke as guys who have 50+ MLB Starts, very good success, and both are under team control for the next 4 years. And then we have Brandon Cumpton with about 10+ MLB Starts, Nick Kingham, Jameson Taillon (possible rehab all of 2015), Pimental, and Liz. And, I think I forgot Kyle McPherson who should be just about finished with his TJ Rehab.
McCarthy signed with the Dodgers
Sorry – didn’t read your post correctly
Bucco_Joe nowhere to be found.
John, Do we know what the issues are with the physical ?
Wasn’t specified. Couldn’t have been too bad because he got a seven-figure MLB deal
Good Point…