Nothing to get excited about, but Our Washington Nationals signed veteran right handed pitcher Kip Wells to a non-guaranteed minor league deal today. A journeyman by every stretch of the imagination--Wells has 10 Years of Major League Service under his belt. I recall Wells having a blood clot in his throwing arm in 2006 and having surgery to fix the issue. Then, a flare-up last year. A low-risk signing that is really an insurance claim in case someone else goes down injured on Our Pitching Staff. Kip does score points though, from not having ever been in The Cincinnati Organization--or even The Diamondbacks.
Nothing to loose here--only a gain. A typical move that many teams take just to see if someone has anything left in the tank. You never know and if he surprises--so be it. If not, Kip Wells doesn't cost you anything.
Kip Wells is also a very good example of a former 1st Round Pick (16th Overall) taken in the 1998 Entry Draft that never really panned out--thinking back to yesterday's post about Ross Detwiler. So, not fully blossoming does happen, more times than many may believe.
Here is the complete press release from the team:
NATIONALS AGREE TO TERMS WITH RHP KIP WELLS
The Washington Nationals today agreed to terms on a non-guaranteed minor-league contract with right-handed pitcher Kip Wells. Nationals Vice President of Baseball Operations and Assistant General Manager Mike Rizzo made this announcement.
The 31-year-old Wells is 65-94 with a 4.67 ERA in 256 games (205 starts) spanning 10 big league seasons with Chicago-AL (1999-2001), Pittsburgh (2002-06), Texas (2006), St. Louis (2007), Colorado (2008) and Kansas City (2008). Wells won a career-high 12 games with Pittsburgh in 2002. He pitched in 25 games last season with Colorado and Kansas City.
The sense I get is the brass is none too enthused about Colin Ballester's chance of making the squad based on his pitching thus far in ST; and they are equally concerned about middle relief (lack of confidence in Jason Bergmann and Garrett Mock in that role). This is where they think Kip Wells comes in to play.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that Stan and Mike are exploring trades involving Nick Johnson for pitching help (and Kearns, of course, but at $8 million, no one will offer anything worthwhile, I would think.) Suspect that Nats will not trade Johnson for another iffy pitcher - we have a stable full of those types.
Hitting and defense and flexibility seem greatly enhanced going into 2009; pitching could be very good, but ONLY IF: Lannan continues to mature; Shawn Hill miraculously can go; Olsen is decent; Zimmermann is everything he appears to be; Cabrerra is decent; and someone emerges to be dependable middle reliever and spot starter. Too many ifs, actually...Stausberg comes in September, perhaps, to give hope for solid rotation in 2010...
Trust in Stan and Mike. All good.