Market Fresh: Jamie Moyer

The Rockies designated Jamie Moyer for assignment this afternoon, making the 49-year-old potentially available for other clubs.

The biggest question mark for the Royals entering 2012 was their starting rotation. As it stands now, the Royals starters have been worse than average, with a mix of very bad starts sprinkled in. I wouldn’t be surprised if they took a look at Moyer, a 25 year veteran.

Why The Royals Might Acquire Moyer

• He has that veteran presence they love to talk about. He’s succeeded as a big leaguer despite having a fastball that junior high phenoms could throw harder. That takes experience and moxie to stick around this long.
• Despite underwhelming velocity, he still has a 6 K/9 strikeout rate. His control hasn’t been too bad at 3 BB/9.
• With the loss of Danny Duffy and other injuries to Jonathan Sanchez and Felipe Paulino, the Royals have used ten different starting pitchers in 2012 in the first two months of the year. One new starter would prevent that revolving door from rotation to long reliever to Omaha to long reliever cycle that they’ve been doing with Vin Mazzaro, Will Smith, Nathan Adcock, Everett Teaford and Luis Mendoza.
• His HR/FB rate (15%) is higher than the league average (which usually settles around 10%) and his BABIP is .342.
• Moyer’s contract with the Rockies was for $1.1 million. The Royals would only pay about two-thirds of that.

Why The Royals Might Not Acquire Moyer

• Sanchez is probably due to return from the DL after one more rehab start (maybe two). Once he’s back, the rotation fits a bit better with he, Luke Hochevar, Bruce Chen and Felipe Paulino as the main starters and perhaps Smith or Mendoza in the fifth spot.
• Moyer put up a 5.70 ERA and 1.733 WHIP in the National League. With the American League generally considered the tougher league to pitch in and having to face a DH every time out, that scares me.
• While his strikeout rate is alright and his walkrate isn’t bad, neither are particularly good, either. He isn’t an extreme ground ball pitcher (42.6% ground balls in 2012, 39.7% for his career).
• Jake Odorizzi and Mike Montgomery are both likely to come up within the next two months. Moyer would be in the way.
• In his last two starts, both outside of Colorado, Moyer gave up 13 runs in 8.2 innings. While Colorado has been known as more of a hitter’s park, Moyer gave up just 12 runs in 29 innings there. On the road, though, he’s given up 22 runs in 24.2 innings.
• The Royals may have said that they’re in “win now” mode, but Moyer isn’t a sure bet to help them do that. He’s thrown some good games, but he’s thrown some very bad ones and his worse outings have been recent ones.

Last week, the Twins let Jason Marquis go, and, as a former big name free agent a couple of seasons ago, I thought the Royals might take a look at him, despite his past two years of struggles. They didn’t, however, as the Padres signed him instead. Part of me sees Kansas City as looking for another arm to start with regularity, but in this case, I don’t think Moyer has anything to offer. He’s shown that age isn’t an excuse to say that he’s no good and he’s pitched with poor velocity, but there’s only so long a pitcher can get by like that, and it seems like Moyer’s time is up.