The time for pitchers and catchers to report for spring training is down to days. With that Kyle Lohse is still unsigned. He is thought to be the best free agent pitcher available but hasn’t been linked to many teams this offseason. This could be for many reasons. He is represented by Scott Boras, an agent that many teams find it difficult to deal with, or it could be because teams weren’t sold on his 2012 stats.
Lohse turned in a very good 2012 season. He finished 16-3 with a 2.86 ERA and pitched over 200 innings. He was the number one start on a team with Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright. After a season like this in a walk year you would think he could command a very lucrative deal but there has not been any big offers to Lohse this offseason.
We need to look into Lohse’s career numbers for the reason he hasn’t had any real offers. He has a career 4.45 ERA and is just slightly above a .500 pitcher. He has only thrown 200 or more innings three times in his 12-year career. His two best seasons of his career have both come on years his contract was expiring. He has been very mediocre in his time with four clubs.
Lohse may have caught a break with the recent injuries to Chris Carpenter. Carpenter will likely miss the entire season and could possibly choose retirement on his lingering shoulder injury. This brings up a big need for the Saint Louis Cardinals as they have multiple pitchers coming off injury. Instead of relying on injury prone and unproven young pitching they will look to sign a veteran pitcher. They know Lohse better then anyone else on the market and will need someone that can pitch towards the top of the rotation.
The Cardinals should take a risk on a starter coming off injury or someone that they can get for third starter money but they won’t. They will play it safe and sign Kyle Lohse because they feel it will give them the best shot to make the playoffs. Lohse isn’t a front line starter and based on his stats looks more like a number three at best but he wants top rotation money. He will probably get that now because of what happened to Chris Carpenter.
2 comments
genefricke
February 8, 2013 at 9:54 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
would it be possible to sign Lohse to a contract and then send him to texas for elvis andres? it would be a win-win for both teams
Zach Hoffmann
February 8, 2013 at 10:43 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I don’t believe so. As I stated in the article Lohse isn’t an elite pitcher. He is more of a number 3 starter and Andrus is one of the best players at a premium position in all of baseball. If the Cards were to get Andrus it would mean they would have to give up a package including Shelby Miller, Trevor Rosenthal, or Oscar Taveras. It would probably include Rosenthal and one of the other two guys plus at least two more decent prospects for Andrus and a mid-level prospect. So just a swap of Lohse for Andrus has no shot at happening.