Hector Rondon

[ewitkows]

Cut by the Cubs who seeming gave up on him . Could be a really good buy low guy and set up man for Knebel. He's in his prime and if his head is right and the pressure of closing is off of him could be a steal.

[NievesNoNO]

Yes, I'd like him as part of the bullpen. He's had a pretty serious home run problem but the K numbers are real nice. Maybe he rediscovers how to keep the ball in the park.

[MadThinker88]

I think some team (like the Indians who lost him in Rule 5 to the Cubs) might offer him a multi year & option deal in the total range of $9M or $10M.

 

In the Tribe's case it protects/ offsets the possible losses of Cody Allen, Andrew Miller (& other relievers) after the 2018 season..

[JohnBriggs12]

He's had some minor injury issues the last couple years and Maddon lost confidence in him, but his stuff is still very good. I wouldn't break the bank for him, but I think he'd fit very well as a fall back if they can't re-sign Swarzak.

[RWeeksFan23]

I don't remember the Brewers ever scoring off this guy; his slider is nasty.

[superfly]

Yes please

[KeithStone53151]

I don't understand this decision by the cubs. Unless he's secretly a wildly bad locker room guy or something. The stuff is nasty, he will definitely be signed to a significant deal. I personally want to see 2 signings in the pen. One I want to be high caliber(addison reed), but the other spot id be ok with rondon.

[MadThinker88]

I don't understand this decision by the cubs. Unless he's secretly a wildly bad locker room guy or something. The stuff is nasty, he will definitely be signed to a significant deal. I personally want to see 2 signings in the pen. One I want to be high caliber(addison reed), but the other spot id be ok with rondon.

 

This might be a case of the analytics suggesting he wasn't as good as casual fans felt he was. On top of that Maddon had lost confidence in him (that fact has been reported in multiple places).

 

IIRC Rondon was not on the playoff roster for either round in 2017. I know he pitched game 1 of the 2016 world series (he gave up the 2nd homer Roberto Perez hit that game) but I don't know if he got into another WS game.

 

Speculation on my part, but this might be an indication that the payroll pockets for the Cubs is not as deep as some people believed. Hector Rondon was projected to get 6.2M in arbitration. The Cubs might have tried to low ball him in advance with contract offer and he wasn't willing to sign for too much less than that projection so the cubs decided to cut him loose.

 

Whatever reason is at the core for this decision by the Cubs, Hector Rondon is a free agent at this point and some team might find a diamond in the rough as a result.

[JohnBriggs12]

I don't understand this decision by the cubs. Unless he's secretly a wildly bad locker room guy or something. The stuff is nasty, he will definitely be signed to a significant deal. I personally want to see 2 signings in the pen. One I want to be high caliber(addison reed), but the other spot id be ok with rondon.

 

I think they could use a lefty specialist too. Yes they have Suter and can keep Hader there but neither are pure lefty specialists. Otherwise Wang could stick in that role but he's far from proven.

 

Maybe sign Rondon and Duensing, and then bring back Swarzak.

[MadScientist]

I don't understand this decision by the cubs. Unless he's secretly a wildly bad locker room guy or something. The stuff is nasty, he will definitely be signed to a significant deal. I personally want to see 2 signings in the pen. One I want to be high caliber(addison reed), but the other spot id be ok with rondon.

 

They lost some confidence with him, as he gave up more homers and walks last year, but the estimate for arbitration was >$6M. Nobody else did a waver claim on him, so similar to Chris Carter last year, the arby figures were too high. If the Brewers can get him for a reasonable price, he'd be a good pickup.