In a season riddled with disappointment for the fans in Valencia, there were a few free agent signings that proved to be fruitful for the stars out of the four players added to the roster via free agency.
At the top of the list was pitcher Luis Gonzalez. Picked off from Twin Cities where he played the previous two and a half seasons, Valencia moved Luis from the bullpen to the starting rotation. Luis responded with a 16-5 record for a team that was 74-88 overall. Luis also finished with a 3.33 ERA and a 1.24 WHIP which resulted in a WAR of 3.9 for the season. Although the WAR output may not have quite justified the salary of $11.4M it took to bring him to Valencia, but it was close enough to make the front office feel like it was worthwhile.
The other free agent signing that seemed to go ok for the Stars was the signing of Zenobius Kazantziakis at first base. While Zeno had a hot start and equally stellar finish, the 28 weeks in between were lukewarm at best. Overall Zeno hit .264 with a .324 on-base percentage to go along with 34 stolen bases. Add in Zeno's gold-glove defense and it ends up with a 2.0 WAR to go against his $6M salary.
Moving on to the signings that not go as planned we will start with reliever Luis Perez. Luis went 2-3 with 21 saves while sharing closing duties with Edguardo Moreno. Luis finished with an ERA of 1.96 and a WHIP of 1.07 before he missed the month of September with a torn tricep. Luis' WAR ended up at a 1.2 to go along with his $7.5M salary.
The biggest disappointment of last year's free agency was starting pitcher Thomas Turner. He was signed with a $13.4M salary for this year but ended up with a WAR of 1.9 which is more in line with a $5M salary. Thomas ended up with a 6-13 record and an ERA of 4.67/WHIP of 1.31.
