With Cliff Lee returning to the City of Brotherly Love, the list of free agent pitchers looks awfully unappealing. Carl Pavano is the “best” option but few teams wish to give him a sizable contract given his injury history. However, there is a Cy Young winner available in a city that will not contend anytime soon.
Greinke has a limited no-trade clause but has formally requested a trade, indicating that he will likely accept any trade that comes his way given that few non-contending teams would actually want his services for the two years remaining on his deal. The real question is, what is Zack Greinke worth.
Greinke had a down year this year. The 27-year-old pitcher went 10-14 with a 4.10 ERA last year. Greinke encountered similar run support problems that plagued his Cy Young season but he definitely wasn’t the same pitcher he was in 2009.
This as well as the $27 million left on his two-year deal should drive the price down to maybe one really good prospect and a few more middle prospects. The Royals want major league-ready players and they might get one or two in a trade, but I doubt anyone is ready to pony up those kind of players for Greinke.
Beyond his down year, there’s another problem with Greinke. He has a bad attitude.
Greinke plays for a bad team that is usually out of playoff contention fairly early in the season (spring training perhaps). But he has been quoted as saying “When we’re 20 games out, it’s hard to get excited to come to the park.”
What kind of attitude is that? You throw a ball covered in leather a little more than 30 times a year in front of tens of thousands of fans and make millions to do it. If you’re unmotivated, guess what? No one feels bad for you.
Greinke’s recent comments are just part of the problem. Greinke has a well documented history of anxiety issues. We’ve seen stellar pitchers like Dontrelle Willis go down in flames due to anxiety. What do Willis and Greinke have in common? Big contracts and trades, assuming Zack does get moved.
My question is simple: Can the Royals really expect a king’s ransom for this man? The answer is no.
Greinke has a very uncharacteristically high ERA at Yankee Stadium and the Evil Empire has publicly stated that they don’t have plans to pursue Greinke. They don’t think he’s mentally stable enough to pitch consistently in Yankee Stadium.
Are the Red Sox, Angels, Rangers, or any other team that might sign him any different? Can Greinke handle the high pressure of pitching in a stadium that still has fans in the eighth inning? I really don’t know.
What I do know is that Greinke had a down year, has attitude problems, and only two years left on a deal that isn’t cheap to begin with. Should teams give up a lot of prospects for a guy with this many question marks?
I don’t think so.
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