Dilip Vishwanat - Getty Images
The Braves have signed right-handed reliever and fan favorite Peter Moylan to a minor league deal, according to a tweet from David O'Brien at the AJC.
Moylan had been with the Braves since 2006, but was non-tendered after a 2011 season that saw him have surgery on both his back and shoulder. He's made a quick recovery, and is supposed to ready early in the season.
According to O'Brien, Moylan's contract would pay him a prorated $1 million for time in the majors, along with other incentives. The deal also includes an invitation to spring training.
To be honest, I'll be surprised if Moylan can come back from two very serious surgeries and still pitch at a high level. Because it's a minor league deal, there isn't much risk here for the Braves though.
He'll have to compete for a spot in a very talented Braves bullpen. The Braves also have Cory Gearrin, who is very similar to Moylan, so the Australian sidearmer will have to impress to earn a spot in the major league pen.
0 recs | 41 comments
Good news, I always liked Moylan.
Bedhead514 - January 17, 2012
PeMo!
jrodisjust2cool - January 17, 2012 via mobile
Glad he is coming back. From reading his tweets, it has been obvious he wanted to come back to Atlanta.
bighop - January 17, 2012
I doubt he was going to get much more than this elsewhere, and if the Braves were offering this, it makes sense for all parties. I’m pretty glad to have him still be around in some capacity.
Afino - January 17, 2012
Kinda funny...
He’s the gizzled old vet in the ’Pen, now…. at 33 years old with parts of only six ML seasons under his belt…. and the same number of years in American professional baseball!
carpengui - January 18, 2012
Agree with all of the previous comments, Love to have the guy back
But out of curiousity…Does this mean that he can sit on the bench with the guys before he gets healthy???
But anyways I believe this truly speaks volumes of how badly PeMo wanted to stay in Atlanta with all of his buds. For him to take 1mil, and do it soo quickly says pretty much that there was absolutely no chance he was going elsewhere, of course unless Atl didn’t want him. Although he will be coming off of injuries, PeMo has been one of the more effective RH Pen Arms goin in the bigs for the past couple of years, and almost surely if proven healthy he could and would have demanded more then his contract entails as of now.
Regardless just want the guy healthy, and back in the pen, mostly because I really do not trust Gearrin whatsoever!! Hopefully, I am wrong and proven greatly wrong, but until Gearrin locks down his control issues, when he is off his game it will continue to be FUGLY when he walks onto the mound.
chicagobullies - January 17, 2012
I like Cory Gearrin’s potential, but reaallly now, Moylan is an established ML pitcher. I guess Gearrin “is very similar to Moylan” in that he’s a RH RP who sidewinders, but the similarity pretty much stops there. At least, so far.
fandave - January 17, 2012
Gearrin did nothing but dominate in AAA last year. They throw at similar velocities and have the same kind of breaking pitch. Moylan is a great personality in the clubhouse, but his control has gotten worse each year in the majors and he’s missed two full seasons with injury. Hard to expect all that much of him this year.
YakuzaFro - January 17, 2012
well, i wouldnt say thats ALL he did
he did get rocked in the bigs too….
Alex H - January 18, 2012
…in a grand total of 18.1 innings.
…where he posted a 2.59 FIP and 3.41 xFIP
Maybe I’m wrong in expecting a higher standard from this forum, but why even bother making any fuss over 18.1 major league innings?
YakuzaFro - January 18, 2012
18 outings, in 4 of those 18 he gave up multiple runs
to say he got rocked, several times, wouldn’t be inaccurate.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.cgi?id=gearrco01&t=p&year=2011
Mr. Sanchez - January 18, 2012
While still pitching with positive peripherals would be even more accurate
sgrapevine - January 18, 2012
The game log kind of speaks for itself
he had too many walks. He had some horrible outings, but he had more strong ones. Good young arm, with loads of ability, that can hopefully keep his control next time he gets the call.
As for next year, he’s certainly in the competition for those last two bullpen spots, along with Varvaro, Hoover, Ascencio, Moylan, etc.
Mr. Sanchez - January 18, 2012
Yeah, it was tough to watch as the walks increased and his confidence crumbled. That’s the reason it was only 18.1 innings.
carpengui - January 18, 2012
It was 18 innings. You might as well be talking about a spring training performance. 18 innings is meaningless. Pick an 18 inning span for literally any pitcher and you can say he “got rocked.”
YakuzaFro - January 18, 2012
So you agree, he got "rocked"
And no, that doesn’t work for “literally any pitcher”. Several have runs much longer, if not entire seasons, without having half the bad outings Gearrin had in his small sample. No one is stupid enough to say a poor sample at the beginning of a career is indicative that he’ll get rocked forever. Hell, it may be a Joey Devine like situation where a couple bad early outings got the kinks out before a ridiculous tear. But 18 innings, for a reliever, is actually a pretty sizeable chunk. For even the the most used relief arms, that’s 20-25+% of their entire season of work.
Mr. Sanchez - January 20, 2012
I like Peter Moylan as well
But I have to agree with this. As well as what Mr. Sanchez mentioned about the walks and runs. If he does better this year, I will gladly eat crow as he seems like a really nice fella.
atlantaisbrave - January 20, 2012
Really nice, low-risk signing.
beeswax - January 17, 2012
This is basically the Proctor deal that was given out last year
Except this one has a chance of paying off!
another simpsons avatar - January 17, 2012
Hey now, the Proctor deal paid off plenty for the teams we faced…
Ivan the Great - January 17, 2012
Didn't Proctor have a call me up or cut me clause?
Where he had to be part of the big league roster by a certain date, or we let him be a FA? Does Moylan’s deal have a similar clause?
Mr. Sanchez - January 18, 2012
yes re question #1.
fandave - January 18, 2012
then I'd be interested to see if Moylan gets a similar...
I’m on the roster by June or July, or else I have the ability to opt out as a free agent. I’d expect he does when the details get released.
Mr. Sanchez - January 18, 2012
I’m guessing he doesn’t because of the injury. I’d have to think by now that if he were healthy the team would want him on the roster, and he’d know that, so there’s really no reason to force his hand.
cbwilk - January 18, 2012
True, the injury does change things
but we’ve done it for Proctor, for Chris Respo, for Rodrigo Lopez, among others. And if injuries delay his season, that could be built in to the clause to create some leeway.
Mr. Sanchez - January 18, 2012
Love this
win win situation
Toewsbow - January 17, 2012
Braves doing work
Great move
Braves24 - January 17, 2012
Glad to have him back!
This guy needed some good things to happen to him. It has been a rough couple of years for him… Tommy John… Shoulder surgery… Non tendered…Marriage… A contract and a surgeon can fix a few of these things but he may never recover from the last one ! :-)
cgros - January 17, 2012 via Android app
Hip, Hip, Hurray!
I don’t know what I would have done not seeing Moylan in a Braves jersey. One of my favorite players because he pitches like I use to in college and occasionally wears glasses (always got the back of the seeing impaired!). Our loyal Wilfred is back, hopefully he’ll stick to his uniform and not go cross dressing again!
dcbravesfn - January 17, 2012
Well I’ll definitely be rooting for you.
Tacodude - January 18, 2012
yay
dank7 - January 18, 2012
Glad to see PeMo back
I would have missed Dave.
DolphinNation - January 18, 2012
LIke
Aussie Aussie Aussie Moy Moy Moy
ChillyMutt - January 18, 2012
As with Caveman
The world is a better place with PeMo on the Braves.
Stats be damned.
Jman781 - January 18, 2012
I am in favor
(not that my opinion matters!). So let’s add another half million to my payroll estimate… bringing that to $90.5m. That assumes he eventually makes the team and meets a couple of incentives, costing the Braves about $500K above the amount I already had guessed for that bullpen slot (which was an ML Minimum $480K).
carpengui - January 18, 2012
I’m also guessing that the only remaining drama of this off-season is whether somebody comes a-begging for a starting pitcher. If Darvish fails to sign, then Frank could get a call about JJ. Not gonna hold my breath at this point, though.
carpengui - January 18, 2012
Love it!
Hopefully he’ll get his own post-game show on FoxSports/SportSouth (no offense to Brian Jordan and Ron Gant, even though – let’s face it – they are nigh unwatchable.)!
Pope Vanderbilt - January 18, 2012
Alright! More of this.....
king of games - January 18, 2012
My eyes! The goggles do nothing!
Decius - January 18, 2012
I think its funny that he chose a dress to show off his cleavage!
The dress really brings out the color of his tatoos
dcbravesfn - January 18, 2012
Wish Moylan the best. Glad he’s still a Brave!
Sparhawk - January 18, 2012
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