<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="http://t.co/mDPUQDOWZ3">http://t.co/mDPUQDOWZ3</a> has learned the Astros have signed veteran RHP Kyle Farnsworth and have optioned Paul Clemens to Triple-A.</p>— Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) <a href="https://twitter.com/brianmctaggart/statuses/467685842577022976">May 17, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Well. I like it. If we can get back a healthy Crain and Albers, with Qualls this could be a fairly decent pen.
Farnsworth is done. Outside of 'veteran leadership' in the bullpen, I'm not sure what this adds. Plus, that good ol' vet leadership usually only works if the player can still walk the walk.
Interesting that reports showed him close to signing with the Reds or Phillies, yet he chose the Astros. Both of those teams have bullpen issues as well, so it's not like he wouldn't get chances with teams that, although are currently below .500, at least have the chance to make the playoffs.
He's been pretty good this year (ERA of 3.18) - much better than a chunk of the Astros' pen. He was serving as the Mets closer when they released him just because he had some kind of 45-day bonus due in a few days.
I was thinking it was a simple matter of acquiring his previous contract, but Farnsworth chose free agency and the Astros signed him to a $1.2 million dollar deal if he meets incentives. (I think one of the incentives is to keep Jerome Williams away from the mound as much as possible).
His WHIP is pretty bad -especially for a closer. I don't think his ERA is sustainable and I doubt the Mets do either.
In the next week or so a clause would have kicked in on his current contract requiring the Mets to be on the hook for $750,000 the rest of the season, so that probably factored into the equation. His current WHIP is better than any healthy reliever the Astros have who has pitched at least 10 innings. Of course that's a misleading stat as that essentially includes only Fields, Qualls (who has been excellent except for the bad 1/3 of an inning a few weeks ago) and Williams.
Veteran leadership on the youngest team in the league is always a plus. These are just the best vets a non contending team can attract.
I stand by my assertion that veteran leadership is useless if the veteran can't play but maybe I'm wrong... hey... he did get a Hold for his stellar performance yesterday and the team won. Maybe it was his calming influence as he casually gave up 2 runs in order to show the team that they can't flinch in the eyes of adversity. Yeah, that's the ticket.