Jason Motte was coming back from Tommy John surgery when the Cubs signed him to an economical one-year deal at this time last year. Prior to that surgery, he was one of the hardest-throwing, most-effective relievers in baseball. After, he’s been something considerably shy of that.
With the Cubs, Motte posted a decent 3.91/3.61/4.76 ERA/FIP/xFIP line over 48.1 innings, but he was often hit hard, didn’t miss many bats, and finished up on the shelf with a shoulder injury.
I say all of that not as a shot at Motte, who did help the Cubs a fair bit early in the year when the bullpen was otherwise floundering, but I say it instead because I’m surprised by this:
BREAKING: #Rockies reach two-year deals on free-agent RHPs Jason Motte and Chad Qualls.
— Patrick Saunders (@psaundersdp) December 8, 2015
Although I probably would have bet that Motte could get a big-league deal this offseason, there’s no way I thought he’d be signing a two-year contract. So, then, I say good for him. I hope he got paid plenty, and I hope he has success with the Rockies.
As for the Cubs, it never seemed like a reunion was going to happen, and that was especially true after the Cubs went bullpen crazy after the season, tendered both Travis Wood and Clayton Richard, and then re-signed Trevor Cahill yesterday.
UPDATE: Motte is reportedly getting $10 million total over those two years, which, wowsa. Again: good for him. The Cubs retained Cahill for just $4.25 million on a one-year deal, so I’ll say again that they did really well.