Valencia and starting pitcher Juan Garcia have agreed to a one-year/$3.7M deal in lieu of going to arbitration. Rumors had it that the arbitration offer was going to be $3.8M.
Like many of the Valencia players in 2061, Juan’s production dropped, His record was 7-15 compared to 12-8 in 2060. Juan’s ERA took a similar hit going from 3.70 in 2060 to 5.07 in 2061. Juan had 12 of his 33 starts where he pitched 6 or more innings while allowing 2 runs or less, it is just the consistency was not there in his other 21 starts to support top of the rotation numbers. Six of Juan's losses is where he allowed two runs or less. All in all, Juan’s WAR for the season dropped to 1.8 which is still on par for a $3.7M salary but it just not the 3.0 or 3.7 WAR that he provided in 2060 and 2059 respectively.
Juan’s overall rating took a slight hit over the past season going from current/potential ratings of 65/70 down to 60/65. However, his Stuff/Movement/Control ratings actually slightly increased from 5/6/7 to 5/7/7.
For 2062 it is anticipated that Juan will be moved from the #1 spot in the rotation down to #2 thanks to the season provided by last year’s free agent Luis Gonzalez. Time will tell if Juan will provide #2 or #5 type numbers in 2062.
