Seattle Mariners Sign Kevin Correia

It’s an exciting time in the world of sports. MLS just kicked off their regular season! The NBA and NHL playoff pushes are on! NFL free agency is off to a fast start! But don’t forget about MLB free agency. That’s right, there are still baseball players out there looking for a new home. No longer among the ranks of the unsigned: Kevin Correia. Because he just inked a minor league deal with the Seattle Mariners.

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Do you know Correia? He’s a 34-year-old righty who’s been an MLB starter since 2003. Okay, so he was exclusively a reliever in 2006, and has only two seasons where he was exclusively a starter (2009 and 2013). Most recently he was a late-season addition by the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he made three starts and six relief appearances. Also of note: he sucks.

Does that sound harsh? Correia has a career 4.59 ERA in 1405.1 innings. That’s certainly more mediocre than it is terrible, though it’s higher than you’d expect from someone who’s been allowed to throw that many innings. He’s never thrown over 200 in a season, which is what you’d expect from someone with such middling results.

His recent past is in line with his career marks, as shown by his 5.44 ERA in 2014 and his 4.18 in 2013. His FIP has been more stable, coming in at 4.67 last year and 4.40 the year before, and his K/BB numbers show similar stability. It’s not like the M’s grabbed a guy in heavy decline. It’s just that they grabbed a guy who routinely strikes out less than five batters per nine frames.

The idea, apparently, is to let him compete for the semi-non-existant long man role in the bullpen. That’s Tom Wilhelmsen‘s job, apparently, though he’s not exactly a long man. It’s been thought that long reliever could be a good spot to stick Erasmo Ramirez, if the team wants to forego a second lefty (and lose David Rollins in the process). Correia’s competing with… Ramirez? Wilhelmsen? Certainly doesn’t seem like a competition he should have any business winning.

This is, of course, all about depth. When five or six pitchers go down with injury all at once, the Mariners are covered. Correia’s not going to be asked to step up and pitch like an ace, but he’s probably better than an Anthony Vasquez or someone of a similar ilk. It’s good to have a Kevin Correia or two, and the Mariners Rainiers have several. Depth is good, and with Chris Young signing a major league deal in Kansas City, Correia was probably the best available minor league swingman.

For now, there’s seemingly no spot on the major league team for Correia. That’s good, given what he’s been up to for his whole career. He’s got four seasons above one WAR, out of twelve. He’s also got four seasons below zero wins, and his career WAR total is six. This is mediocrity sustained for an incredible time period. Mediocrity, except when he’s worse than that. Even Jason Marquis has a 3.5 WAR season under his belt. Correia’s never sniffed that, and presumably never will.

But he pitched meaningful innings for one of the game’s elite teams down the stretch last season, and now he’s going to AAA, where he’ll be harmless rotation depth. Could be worse. As such, this isn’t even a move worth critiquing. Kevin Correia:

Seattle Mariner

Tacoma Rainier. Sounds good to me.