The Seattle Mariners lost one of their options for long relief Wednesday when knuckleball pitcher R.A. Dickey decided to accept a contract offer from the Minnesota Twins.
Dickey went 5-8 with a 5.21 earned-run average this year with the Mariners, when he started 14 games and relieved in 18 others. He was much more effective as a reliever, going 2-0 with a 2.00 ERA.
Like the Mariners, the Twins’ rotation is full but they have openings in the bullpen.
“I think it’s a good decision for me and my family,” said Dickey, who noted that the Twins’ location in Minneapolis, along with their spring training site in Florida, are more convenient travel-wise for his wife and three kids from their home in Nashville.
Dickey also had an offer from the New York Mets and significant interest from the Milwaukee Brewers. Both the Twins and Mariners offered him a split major-minor league contract, but Dickey believed there was greater assurance of a key role with the Twins.
“It’s not that there wasn’t opportunity in Seattle,” he said. “But I feel like there’s more opportunity in Minnesota for me, which is all based on the way they pursued me and how hard they pursued me. They were very forthright about where they thought I would fit in.”
Dickey, 34, described his 2008 season with the Mariners as a “breakout year for me” in his conversion from a traditional-style pitcher to a knuckleballer.
“I know overall my numbers were pretty mediocre, but some things I did throughout the year gave me a flash of what I’m capable of doing at the big-league level,” he said. “It will give me a lot of confidence going forward. The last three years, I’ve been building and working so hard to get to this point with the knuckleball. To reinvent yourself takes a while.”
The Twins have a history with Dickey. They signed him as a minor-league free agent after the 2007 season but the Mariners selected him in the Rule 5 draft last December.
“They wanted me last year and I got Rule 5’d away,” he said. “It’s so much more about that than what Seattle didn’t offer and didn’t say. Ultimately, you’ve got to trust your heart, and I felt like what they were saying was more conducive for me to be in a place that’s stable.”
Because the knuckleball puts less strain on his arm, Dickey is able to pitch back-to-back days during times when conventional pitchers would need time off to recover.
