One player that seems to currently be pricing himself out of anyone’s reach is Wei-Yin Chen, whose demands are keeping the Baltimore Orioles from trying to re-sign him despite his form last season, while the St. Louis Cardinals and Washington Nationals, two teams with a bigger spending power, might be the only ones actually interested and capable of signing him under the current conditions.
The 30-year old starting pitcher is looking for a five-year, $100 million deal after making $4.7 million last season for the Orioles. That’s quite a price tag that seems to be holding everyone back from even calling up Chen and his reps, but for the Cardinals and Nationals, both teams still looking to make some sort of impact-like signing to their pitching staff or lineup, it’s not too big of a deterrent.
Chen had a career-best ERA last season at 3.34, going 11-8 in 191.1 innings. He dropped his WHIP for the third straight season to 1.218 and his 7.2 strikeouts per nine innings is tied for his career high. Basically, he was one of the best pitchers in the American League, although it didn’t show in any voting platform, at least not since his rookie season in 2012.
Both the Cardinals, who seem to have a very strong 1-2 duo in their rotation, need a little more zip in their starting pitching staff, maybe to compete with what the New York Mets, San Francisco Giants and maybe even the Chicago Cubs have. Chen isn’t going to be a number one guy for either team, but he can certainly find himself as one of the top 3 guys on both teams and anyone else who tries to sign him, and obviously vastly improve the odds of competing for a playoff spot and going even further, trying to win a World Series, something both teams are hoping to do at the end of next season.