Zell's Pinstripe Blog

This offseason Yankees fans are wondering how much they’d have to fork over for Doc Halladay or how many years and millions John Lackey would command. Though there is a dark horse candidate lurking in the background that many Yankees fans might not think is on the radar. According to Peter Gammons, the Yankees have not ruled out going after Ben Sheets, which in theory wouldn’t be a bad idea.

Pros

Upon mentioned his name, I know I invoke a few groans and rolls of the eyes, which is well deserved, in some cases. Though, the stats do not lie, in 8 active years, he has an ERA of 3.72 and 7.6 Ks per nine innings. Though, when healthy (and that’s a big IF) he can throw 200+ innings easily and even with injury riddled years, he provides 6+ innings in his starts. Think of this, Andy Pettitte re-signs, Roy Halladay doesn’t get traded and John Lackey goes elsewhere, you can slide Ben Sheets in as a 4th or 5th starter and move Joba or Phil to the bullpen or rotate their starts. With Ben not needing to be the #1 starter like he was in Milwaukee, he can relax and pitch his game. When healthy, Ben Sheets has the potential to be a front line starter.

Cons

Sheets missed all of last year due to rehabilitation of his surgically repaired elbow which he injured in 2008.  All the eye rolling and scoffing at him possibly signing is well deserved. The biggest con against him is his health. If you remove 2008 from his pitching records, from 2005 to 2007, his innings pitched were: 156.2, 106, 141.1. Not exactly stellar, more like Joba rules were in effect for him. Another big IF is whether or not he’d be able to pitch in a big city market like New York. Many pitchers have come and not lived up to their expectations or wilted under the pressure (See: Javy Vasquez, Kenny Rodgers, Jack McDowell, Randy Johnson, etc al).

Given his ability, I don’t think the Yankees would be too far off their rockers if they offered him a decent base salary heavy with incentives, similar to what Andy Pettitte received in 2009. Yes, he received a very nice 12.1 million from Milwaukee in 2008, however, Sheets has to know that after elbow surgery, his injury riddled past, that an incentive laden deal would be the best way to go. There won’t be many teams crazy enough to take a chance and offer $10+ million guaranteed a year for him due to his history.

Now, comparing this to his colleagues available this year, he would be a steal if he returned to form. John Lackey made $10 million in 2009 and will like be able to command close to $12 if not more and if the Yankees acquire Doc Halladay, it’s likely he’ll be signing a deal worth $15-23 million annually as well. While a signing like this may be the wild card out of the Lackey, Halladay, Sheets pool, it could turn out to be a great move.