SEATTLE – Having unraveled the back end of their once-seamless bullpen in offseason trades, the Seattle Mariners began putting it back together Friday. In doing so, they signed a pitcher trying to patch himself up as well.
The Mariners signed free-agent right-hander Chris Reitsma, who had season-ending elbow surgery last July after suffering a nerve injury.
“When Dr. James Andrews did the surgery, he said he’d only seen one other person with the problem, Kenny Rogers,” said Reitsma, 29. “It was Kenny Rogers the singer, not the pitcher. And he got the problem from holding a microphone.”
Any concern the signing may create because of Reitsma’s health will disappear if he can throw the ball past a hitter in the eighth inning. That’s the role he will have this year for the Mariners, who created a void in their right-handed setup relief when they traded hard-throwing Rafael Soriano to the Atlanta Braves in exchange for starting pitcher Horacio Ramirez.
Interestingly, Reitsma last pitched for the Braves, who didn’t offer him a contract for 2007.
He pitched the past three years with the Braves, including a solid 2005 season when he recorded 15 saves and finished with a 3.93 earned run average in 731/3 innings.
Last year, however, those numbers ballooned amid the elbow problem. Reitsma had eight saves in the first two months of the season, but he gave up 11 earned runs in three appearances in early June. He then went on the disabled list because of ulnar neuritis that caused his right hand to go numb.
“It was like playing the piano without being able to feel your fingers,” he said. “It would come and go, and the last game I pitched in, I hit Miguel Tejada in the head. I got out of there, because I wasn’t doing myself or anyone else any good.”
That was July 1, Reitsma’s first game back from the DL, and he had surgery 17 days later.
He says he’s healthy now, and the Mariners confirmed it with a series of exams before they signed him to a one-year contract that will pay him $1.35 million. It also includes a $2.7 million team option for 2008 or a $700,000 buyout.
“The two previous years, I’d pitched 84 and 76 games, so I’m a guy who wants the ball every day,” said Reitsma, who was a Mariners fan growing up in Calgary, Alberta. “I feel fortunate to get the opportunity to pitch so close to my home in Canada. I feel strong and ready. I like the direction this team has taken. I’ve done a lot of jobs in the game, and I’ve setup for John Smoltz in Atlanta. To me, getting three outs in the eighth or ninth innings is the job.”
The Mariners need that. Besides trading away Soriano, they also will be without right-hander Mark Lowe (elbow surgery) at least the first half of the season and right-hander Emiliano Fruto (sent to the Washington Nationals in the Jose Vidro trade).
Reitsma will join a bullpen whose setup possibilities to closer J.J. Putz include right-handers Julio Mateo, Jon Huber and, unless he wins the fifth starting job, Cha Seung Baek, plus left-handers George Sherrill, Eric O’Flaherty, Ryan Feierabend and Jake Woods, who also will compete for the fifth starting role.
“When we moved Soriano, it took a big bite out of our bullpen,” general manager Bill Bavasi said. “This move fills that hole.”
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