NEWSFLASH: Rangers Sign Turnbow
Joey Matschulat
Right-hander Derrick Turnbow (pictured) will compete for a bullpen spot in spring training.There's nothing quite like ringing in 2009 -- and a belated Happy New Year to all of you, by the way -- with a surprise early-morning transaction, even if it's not of a tremendously consequential nature, and the Texas Rangers, according to MLB.com's Ken Gurnick, have evidently delivered the goods:
The Rangers moved to upgrade their bullpen Wednesday night by reaching a tentative agreement with free-agent right-hander Derrick Turnbow on a one-year contract.
Turnbow chose the Rangers over the Marlins and Pirates, in large part because of his familiarity with new pitching coach Mike Maddux, according to agent Damon Lapa. Maddux was Turnbow's pitching coach in Milwaukee.
The low-risk acquisition of Turnbow, a 6' 3," 200-pound right-hander whose 31st birthday will be on celebrated January 25th, has Maddux's fingerprints all over it; MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan reported on Wednesday evening that Turnbow had received Maddux's recommendation, though to what degree that factored into the organization's decision to ink Turnbow is not immediately clear.
Turnbow's minor league deal presumably includes an invitation to big league spring training, and would pay the strikeout artist the guaranteed sum of $925,000 if he makes the Opening Day major league roster; $325,000 in performance incentives are also included, though it's not yet certain whether the payout of those is contingent on total appearances, innings pitched or games finished in 2009.
[Update: Per Richard Durrett of the Dallas Morning News, the performance incentives are based on appearances made, and he has been tendered a formal invitation to big league spring training.]
There's also no word on whether the contract features an out clause that would allow Turnbow to request his unconditional release if he failed to survive the multiple rounds of spring roster cuts and was reassigned to minor league camp; you may recall that right-hander Jason Davis invoked a similar clause in March 2008 after being signed to a minor league deal two months prior, and, after declaring his free agency, was summarily snapped up by the Pirates, who then assigned him to Triple-A Indianapolis.
Claimed off the scrap heap by the Brewers following the 2004 season, Maddux promptly harnessed the talented fireballer's erratic control and prescribed the mechanical adjustments that would transform the native Tennessean into a star seemingly overnight. Turnbow tied Danny Kolb's club record of 39 saves in a single season in 2005, notching a 1.74 ERA and 1.08 WHIP for Milwaukee while posting a strikeouts-to-walks ratio of 64-to-24 in 67.1 innings and narrowly missing out on the 2005 Rolaids Relief Man of the Year Award, which ultimately went to fellow right-handed closer Chad Cordero -- ironically enough, another veteran reclamation project that the Rangers have been kicking the tires on in recent weeks.
Since that memorable 2005 campaign, however, Turnbow's mound fortunes have badly faltered. The high-90s heat and tight, filthy mid-80s slurve that originally vaulted him to success remained a part of his arsenal, but his newfound control vanished, and he has failed to walk fewer than six batters per nine innings at any professional stop he has made since. The inherent volatility often found in relievers is a blessing and a curse all at the same time, frequently provoking meteoric rises and falls, and in Turnbow's case, his rapid decline in effectiveness precipitated a simultaneous decline in fan and organizational confidence.
After being relegated to mop-up duty during the 2008 season's first month as a result of his singularly abhorrent control, the final straw came on April 30th at Chicago, when Turnbow yielded six earned runs on four hits and four walks in just two-thirds of an inning, tossing just 21 of his 43 pitches for strikes in what ultimately turned out to be a 19-5 blowout loss for the Brewers.
Milwaukee designated their woebegone right-hander for assignment two days later, outrighted him to Triple-A Nashville seven days after that, and then helplessly stood by and watched what Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel later termed a "near-total command meltdown," with a floundering Turnbow yielding 41 free passes in just 18 innings with the Sounds. A late-July MRI revealed a slight undersurface tear of Turnbow's rotator cuff, which ultimately did not require surgery but did prompt his immediate shutdown; agent Damon Lapa presently asserts that his client will be 100 percent healthy for the start of spring training.
Unfortunately, health is but one obstacle impeding Turnbow on his quest to regain his former stardom. The below video showcases Turnbow (and his devastating fastball/slurve combination) in action during the Brewers' 4-3 home victory over the Cardinals on June 10th, 2006, less than a month before the onset of his cataclysmic second-half collapse:
Notice the healthy radar gun readings? They weren't quite so healthy in 2008, as Baseball Info Solutions' pitch data indicates that he lost no less than two miles per hour of average velocity on both offerings between 2007 and 2008, and while both that phenomenon and his particularly egregious lack of control can be fairly attributed to his injured rotator cuff, expecting Maddux to resurrect his broken former pupil might be expecting just a bit too much.
Then again, stranger things have happened. Just don't bet too heavily on seeing Turnbow in a Rangers uniform come June 1st, and particularly not as the closer.
Texas is almost certainly not finished browsing the salvage yard; in addition to the aforementioned Cordero, the Rangers are believed to have looked at free-agent right-handers Jason Isringhausen and Guillermo Mota (the former of whom pitched many times against Maddux's Brewers during his six-year tenure in Milwaukee, and the latter of whom was semi-effective as a Brewers reliever in 2008 -- one can only presume Maddux is quite familiar with both), and have explored left-handers Brian Shouse, Dennys Reyes, Joe Beimel, Will Ohman and Eddie Guardado.
The Rangers reportedly came close to signing right-hander Joe Nelson just before Christmas, but the Rays snatched him up with a one-year, $1.3 million contract.
[Additional Reading: "What's All The Fuss? Part 2" by Beyond the Box Score's Harry Pavlidis, a thorough analysis of Turnbow's Pitch f/x data.]
Reader Comments (8)
Apparently this is a minor league deal, so there's no real risk here - I'm not a Turnbow fan however, even given Mike Maddux's apparent past success with him. Kinda hard for me to get excited about adding another hard chucker with control problems (BB/9 below 6 only once in his career, unless you count 11 games in '03).
Well, even with a commitment like this there's always some degree of risk -- the risk that he has a flukishly good spring training, makes the team and then absolutely stinks it up, but gets too much leash based on his spring training performance and isn't ousted until he's done some serious damage. One would certainly hope that won't be what happens, but we've seen it before and we'll no doubt see it again.
I also think that the state of Turnbow's control is such that he's virtually beyond salvation (he reminds me of Franklyn German in that regard), but perhaps I'm underestimating the magic that is apparently Mike Maddux.
Are all Ranger fans this cynical? Turnbow is going to surprise some people.
Also, if we are going to bring in a new pitching coach, why not listen to him, when he believes he knows of a pitcher that can help this staff. Maddox is putting his reputation and eventually his job on the line with his thoughts. So back up and let this thing play out.
Once we sign Ben Sheets, then our starting rotation and our bullpen may both be strengths.
I've heard all this young kid stuff for the last 5 years. To be competitive, we must bridge the gap with vets!
Understand that I have not once questioned Maddux's credentials or coaching ability -- he is, by all indications, a fine pitching coach, one that the Rangers are quite lucky to now have in their possession.
That said, I'm not quite sure why some people believe that Turnbow, whose control isn't merely horrendous but career-threatening, is going to magically turn things around here with Maddux around when Maddux couldn't fix him in Milwaukee during the second half of the 2006 season and 2007. Is it possible? Sure. Do I think it's likely? No. Being a great pitching coach is not equivalent to being a miracle worker.
Eh, Turnbow is a guy that's always interested me, and our bullpen is below fringe average right now. I'll take on bullpen reclamation projects till the end of time if we hit on just half of them. (Rocker and Irabu didn't go so well, but Gagne and Guardado did). To be honest though, I was really hoping we'd take a shot at Juan Cruz this off season if we were going to add a bullpen arm. So who's everyone think ends up in the bullpen next season? My votes would be Francisco, Wilson, Benoit, Gabbard, Madrigal. Still not sure about Nippert, Rupe, or Diamond. Nippert may well be a younger version of Turnbow (which means he might pull an incredible season out of nowhere). Rupe would be an absolute dark horse for the 5th rotation spot. And Diamond could probably use some AAA time to start the season.
Well, Cruz is a tremendous high-strikeout guy as well, but is frighteningly prone to the free pass as well (albeit not to the extent that Turnbow is), walking 4.65 batters per nine innings for his career and 5.40 per nine innings during his low-ERA campaign in 2008...granted, he does not yield high opponents' batting averages, but his .189 mark last season was well below his career average of .235, as was his .280 BABIP (career average of .300), and he left an astonishing 83.6 percent of batters on base, the highest such mark on his career, all of which suggests that he can't sustain that great ERA. Finally, his ground-to-fly ball ratio has fallen every year since 2004, and in fact fell all the way down to 0.47 in 2008.
And, as a Type A free agent, he would cost the Rangers a second-round pick (or a third-rounder if they ended up signing a higher-ranked free agent yet this winter).
As far as the Opening Day bullpen, Wilson, Benoit and Francisco are your only locks at this point, though I suspect Rupe and/or Madrigal could lock in spots with a good spring...Diamond is likely a long shot to break camp as a Ranger at this point, Nippert could really go in either direction, and with regard to the second left-handed relief spot in the bullpen, I'll be stunned if Texas doesn't pick up another southpaw or two to compete for that spot, or in fact just brings back Guardado...neither Gabbard or Torres do much of anything for me.
At this point we could survive the season with Gabbard as our second lefty out of the bullpen. I've always thought a second lefty was always more of a luxury unless your closer was a lefty.
Which reminds me...I think I mentioned in a comment a short while back that if the best the Rangers can come up with as a second left-hander out of the bullpen is Gabbard or Torres, they might as well roll with just one southpaw and keep a right-hander that otherwise would have been cut, providing that he's more competent at pitching than Gabbard or Torres (which isn't particularly difficult)...perhaps I'm dramatically underselling Gabbard, but he really does very little for me.