Nationals Sign Jason Marquis

The Washington Nationals are the winners of the Jason Marquis derby. His contract is for 2-years, $15 million. Marquis is coming off a career year in which he was worth 3.8 WAR. He started the season strong but struggled down the stretch, pitching himself off of Colorado’s playoff roster. His previous two seasons with the Cubs he was good for 3.5 WAR combined.

Marquis’ success is predicated on keeping the ball on the ground and in the park, two things he excelled at last year. His groundball rate of 56% was a career high and he allowed just .63 HR/9 in Colorado, of all places. The increase of groundballs is encouraging, but his 1.44 K/BB ratio means he’s dancing on the edge of a knife.

All in all, Jason Marquis is the walking definition of a league-average innings-muncher. I don’t mean that as a knock, that certainly has value. CHONE projects Marquis to be 1.8 wins above replacement in 2009. At $7.5 million per, the dollars aren’t too bad. To this point the market is paying about $3.8 million per win; Marquis is coming at around $4-4.3 per win for the Nats.  He’s certainly an upgrade over household names such as J.D. Martin or Craig Stammen.

But here’s the rub. What exactly is the point of spending $4 million for a win when you’re the Nationals? The team currently has maybe seventy-something win talent and they’re well on their way to becoming basement dwellers in the NL East yet again. Signing an innings-eater such as Marquis to a contract like this makes zero sense; all he does is makes the Nationals slightly less bad than they were a year ago.

If the Nationals wanted to fill a spot, why not just sign a Ken Phelps All-Star like Lenny DiNardo  (whom CHONE projects to be worth 1.7 WAR) and save the millions for Bryce Harper?

I’m also enjoying the irony that Stephen Strasburg is getting paid $15 million from the Nationals for four years, while Marquis is getting the same for two. Those wacky draft picks are just so overpaid, right Rob Dibble?





Erik Manning is the founder of Future Redbirds and covers the Cardinals for Heater Magazine. You can get more of his analysis and rantings in bite-sized bits by following him on twitter.

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theWizard
14 years ago

It amazes me how often Marquis is left off a playoff roster. He did the same thing with the Cardinals – was a solid pitcher through most of the year for a good team, piled up more wins than he probably deserved and then faded so badly down the stretch that the team couldn’t even trust him in the bullpen. Wonder how often a 3.8 WAR pitcher ends up getting left off the playoff roster?

petejohn
14 years ago
Reply to  theWizard

He was not at all solid that year. He was arguably the worst starter in baseball that season. 5.90 fip and a 6.12 tRA. Awful, awful pitcher who kept getting innings because his arm was physically attached.

Game Of Inches blog
14 years ago
Reply to  theWizard

clearly none of you have ever seen jason marquis pitch. His truly awful numbers are always maskd by a handful (5 or 6) really lucky starts. Remember 2007? Yah…