Major League Free Agent List 2011-12 (PITCHERS sorted by fWAR)

updated 2/22/12 5:28 PM PST
by Jason Martinez

The following list includes major league free agent pitchers only. Players that have signed are listed under the 'OFF THE MARKET' section at the bottom of the page. A list of minor leaguers will also be posted in the near future. For now, you can see a list of each team's 'unofficial' minor league free agents on the team pages.

This particular list is sorted by fWAR, which stands for 'Wins Above Replacement' as defined by FanGraphs.com. Below is a short description. Click HERE for FanGraphs.com's full description.

Wins Above Replacement (WAR) is an attempt by the sabermetric community to summarize a player’s total contributions to their team in one statistic. You should always use more than one metric at a time when evaluating players, but WAR is pretty darn all-inclusive and provides a handy reference point. WAR basically looks at a player and asks the question, “If this player got injured and their team had to replace them with a minor leaguer or someone from their bench, how much value would the team be losing?” This value is expressed in a wins format, so we could say that Player X is worth 6.3 wins to their team while Player Y is only worth 3.5 wins.

Click HERE for the list of POSITION PLAYERS.
Click HERE for a full list of Major League Free Agents separated by position.

FREE AGENTS
Starting Pitchers  
fWAR of 3.0 or higher
RHP Javier Vazquez FLA (3.2)

fWAR between 1.5 and 2.9
RHP Roy Oswalt PHI (2.5) $16M club option DECLINED

fWAR between 0.5 and 1.4
None

fWAR between -0.3 and 0.4
RHP Rich Harden OAK (0.4) INJURED - OUT FOR THE 2012 SEASON
RHP Chris Young NYM (0.1)
RHP Jon Garland LAD (0.1) $8M club option DECLINED

Injured
RHP Brandon Webb TEX (DNP-Injured) +

OFF THE MARKET

Starting Pitchers 
fWAR of 3.0 or higher
LHP C.J. Wilson TEX (5.9) SIGNED w/ ANGELS (5 yr, $77.5M)
RHP Edwin Jackson STL (3.8) SIGNED w/ NATIONALS (1 yr, $11M)
LHP Mark Buehrle CWS (3.4) SIGNED w/ MARLINS (4 yr, $58M)

fWAR between 1.5 and 2.9

RHP Bartolo Colon NYY (2.9) SIGNED w/ ATHLETICS (1 yr, $2M)
RHP Ryan Dempster CHC (2.8) $14M player option EXERCISED
LHP Jeff Francis KC (2.6) SIGNED w/ REDS (Minor League Deal)
LHP Erik Bedard BOS (2.4) SIGNED w/ PIRATES (1 yr, $4.5M)
RHP Hiroki Kuroda LAD (2.4) SIGNED w/ YANKEES (1 yr, $10M)
RHP Freddy Garcia NYY (2.2) RE-SIGNED (1 yr, $4M)
LHP Paul Maholm PIT (2.1) SIGNED w/ CUBS (1 yr, $4.75M, plus 2013 club option)
RHP Livan Hernandez WAS (1.9) SIGNED w/ ASTROS (Minor League Deal)
LHP Bruce Chen KC (1.7) RE-SIGNED (2 yr, $9M)
LHP Chris Capuano NYM (1.6) SIGNED w/ DODGERS (2 yr, $10M)

fWAR between 0.5 and 1.4
RHP Jason Marquis ARI (1.4) SIGNED w/ TWINS (1 yr, $3M)
RHP Joel Pineiro LAA (1.3) SIGNED w/ PHILLIES (Minor League Deal)
RHP Aaron Cook COL (1.0) SIGNED w/ RED SOX (Minor League Deal)
LHP Joe Saunders ARI (1.0)  RE-SIGNED (1 yr, $6M)
LHP Zach Duke ARI (0.8) SIGNED w/ ASTROS (Minor League Deal)
RHP Brad Penny DET (0.8) SIGNED w/ Fukuoka (Japan) (1 yr, $3M)
RHP Tim Wakefield BOS (0.8) RETIRED
LHP Dontrelle Willis CIN (0.8) SIGNED w/ PHILLIES (1 yr, $1M)
RHP Kevin Millwood COL (0.7) SIGNED w/ MARINERS (Minor League Deal)
LHP Jo-Jo Reyes BAL (0.7) SIGNED w/ PIRATES (Minor League Deal)
RHP Aaron Harang SD (0.6) SIGNED w/ DODGERS (2 yr, $12M, plus mutual option)

fWAR between -0.5 and 0.4
RHP Chien-Ming Wang WAS (0.2) RE-SIGNED (1 yr, $4M)
RHP Rodrigo Lopez CHC (-0.3) RE-SIGNED w/ CUBS (Minor League Deal)
LHP Aaron Laffey KC (-0.5) SIGNED w/ BLUE JAYS (Minor League Deal)

International Free Agents

RHP Hisashi Iwakuma Japan SIGNED w/ MARINERS (1 yr, $1.5M)
LHP Wei-Yin Chen Japan SIGNED w/ ORIOLES (3 yr, est. $11-12M, plus 2015 club option)

LHP Tsuyoshi Wada Japan SIGNED w/ ORIOLES (2 yr, $8.15M, plus 2014 option)

Injured

RHP Adam Wainwright STL (DNP-Injured) $21M club options for 2012-13 EXERCISED

__________________________________________________________________

FREE AGENTS
Relief Pitchers
fWAR between 0.0 and 0.4
LHP Mike Gonzalez TEX (0.3)

fWAR between -0.8 and -0.1
RHP Sergio Mitre NYY (-0.1)
RHP Michael Wuertz OAK (-0.5)
LHP Arthur Rhodes STL (-0.6) 

Injured
LHP Damaso Marte NYY (DNP-Injured) + $4M club option DECLINED

OFF THE MARKET
Relief Pitchers 
fWAR of 1.0 or higher
RHP Jonathan Papelbon BOS (3.0) SIGNED w/ PHILLIES (4 yr, $50M) 

RHP Ryan Madson PHI (1.7) SIGNED w/ REDS (1 yr, $8.5M) 

RHP Francisco Rodriguez MIL (1.4) ACCEPTED ARBITRATION
LHP Darren Oliver TEX (1.3) SIGNED w/ BLUE JAYS (1 yr, $4.5M, plus 2013 club option)
RHP Jose Valverde DET (1.0) $9M club option EXERCISED

fWAR between 0.5 and 0.9
RHP Octavio Dotel STL (0.9) SIGNED w/ TIGERS (1 yr, $3M, plus 2013 option)
RHP Kyle Farnsworth TB (0.9) $3.3M mutual option EXERCISED
RHP LaTroy Hawkins MIL (0.7) SIGNED w/ ANGELS (1 yr, $3M)
LHP Javier Lopez SF (0.7) RE-SIGNED (2 yr, $8.5M)
RHP Heath Bell SD (0.5) SIGNED w/ MARLINS (3 yr, $27M, plus 2015 vesting option)
RHP Todd Coffey WAS (0.5) SIGNED w/ DODGERS (1 yr, $1.3M)
RHP Frank Francisco TOR (0.5) SIGNED w/ METS (2 yr, $12M)
LHP George Sherrill ATL (0.5) SIGNED w/ MARINERS (1 yr, $1.1M)
RHP Kerry Wood CHC (0.5) RE-SIGNED (1 yr, $3M)

fWAR between 0.0 and 0.4

RHP Shawn Camp TOR (0.4) SIGNED w/ MARINERS (1 yr, $TBD) 
RHP Dan Wheeler BOS (0.4) SIGNED w/ INDIANS (Minor League Deal)
RHP Jason Frasor CWS (0.3) $3.75M club option EXERCISED
RHP Brad Lidge PHI (0.3) SIGNED w/ NATIONALS (1 yr, $1M) 
RHP Peter Moylan ATL (0.3) + RE-SIGNED (Minor League Deal)
LHP Rich Hill BOS (0.3) + RE-SIGNED (Minor League Deal) 
RHP Luis Ayala NYY (0.2) SIGNED w/ ORIOLES (1 yr, $925K, plus 2013 club option) 
RHP Vicente Padilla LAD (0.2) SIGNED w/ RED SOX (Minor League Deal)
RHP Takashi Saito MIL (0.2) SIGNED w/ DIAMONDBACKS (1 yr, $1.75M) 

LHP Jeremy Affeldt SF (0.2) $5M club option EXERCISED
RHP Francisco Cordero CIN (0.1) SIGNED w/ BLUE JAYS (1 yr, $4.5M) 
RHP Micah Owings ARI (0.1) SIGNED w/ PADRES (1 yr, $1M)
LHP J.C. Romero COL (0.1) SIGNED w/ CARDINALS (1 yr, $750K)
RHP Juan Cruz TB (0.0) SIGNED w/ PIRATES (Minor League Deal) 
RHP Guillermo Mota SF (0.0) RE-SIGNED (1 yr, $1M)
RHP Mike MacDougal LAD (0.0) RE-SIGNED (1 yr, $1M, plus 2013 club option)

RHP Joe Nathan MIN (0.0) SIGNED w/ RANGERS (2 yr, $14.5M) 
LHP Horacio Ramirez LAA (0.0) SIGNED w/ Kia of Korean League (TBD) 

fWAR between -0.6 and -0.1
RHP Miguel Batista NYM (-0.1) RE-SIGNED (Minor League Deal)
RHP Dan Cortes SEA (-0.1) + SIGNED w/ NATIONALS (Minor League Deal)
RHP Ramon Ortiz CHC (-0.1) SIGNED w/ GIANTS (Minor League Deal)
RHP Jamey Wright SEA (-0.1) SIGNED w/ DODGERS (Minor League Deal)
RHP Scott Linebrink ATL (-0.2) SIGNED w/ CARDINALS (Minor League Deal)
RHP Fernando Rodney LAA (-0.2) SIGNED w/ RAYS (1 yr, $2M, plus 2013 club option)
RHP Jonathan Broxton LAD (-0.3) SIGNED w/ ROYALS (1 yr, $4M) 
RHP Chad Durbin CLE (-0.3) SIGNED w/ NATIONALS (Minor League Deal) 
RHP Chad Qualls SD (-0.3) SIGNED w/ PHILLIES (1 yr, $1.15M)
LHP Jose Mijares MIN (-0.3) SIGNED w/ ROYALS (1 yr, $925K)
LHP Trever Miller BOS (-0.3) SIGNED w/ CUBS (Minor League Deal)
LHP Doug Slaten WAS (-0.3) SIGNED w/ PIRATES (Minor League Deal)
RHP Matt Capps MIN (-0.4) RE-SIGNED (1 yr, $4.75M, plus 2013 club option)
RHP Jason Isringhausen NYM (-0.4) SIGNED w/ ANGELS (Minor League Deal)
LHP Hong-Chih Kuo LAD (-0.4) SIGNED w/ MARINERS (1 yr, $1M)
LHP John Grabow CHC (-0.5) SIGNED w/ DODGERS (Minor League Deal)
RHP Jon Rauch TOR (-0.6) SIGNED w/ METS (1 yr, $3.5M)
RHP Andy Sonnanstine TB (-0.8) SIGNED w/ CUBS (1 yr, $TBD)
RHP Joel Zumaya DET (DNP-Injured) + SIGNED w/ TWINS (1 yr, $800K)



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