Omaha signs Cardenas, Orosco to multi-year deals(39.23)

[niles08]

Despite being rumored to be on the block and in discussion in trade deals throughout the season, Omaha has gone ahead and signed two pitchers essentially buying out their arbitration seasons.

First, Omaha announced that they signed relief pitcher/starting pitcher/whatever pitcher he is Augusto Cardenas to a 3 year contract extension. The 25 year old had been one of the best relief pitchers in the game when with California and will make $2.28 million in 2040, $3.28 million in 2041 and $4.28 million in 2042.

Cardenas has a 3.92 ERA this season over 43 innings. His 5.40 ERA as a starter and 20 innings hides his 2.66 ERA in 23.2 innings of relief where he has a 7/1 K/BB ratio. It’s possible Omaha stretches him back out to be a starter just as they announced they were doing with Jose Lima this week, however Cardenas had a combined WAR of 8.7 over the 2036-2038 seasons so it’s foolish to mess too much with that.

The second contract agreed to was with Manuel Orosco who has not thrown a pitch in Omaha since April 2038. He lasted all of 5 starts in 2038 before tearing his rotator cuff and has been in recovery since that time. He has shown very good stuff when healthy, however since his debut with Vegas in the 2036 season, he has rarely been healthy. As a matter of a fact in the past 4 seasons he has thrown 126.1 innings. He is still only 24 years old so has time to rebound in his career but the clock is certainly ticking.

It’s worth nothing that this torn rotator cuff is not only the second of Orosco’s career but the 2nd in 2 years. He tore his rotator cuff on April 7th, 2037 and missed 12 months before tearing it once again on April 26th, 2038.

Regardless, he will get paid as Omaha announced they have bought the next 2 arbitration seasons. Next season the right hander will earn $2.25 Million which is about $1.8 million less than arbitration had him pegged at despite his failure to pitch this season. In 2041, he will earn $5.25 million. That’s a guaranteed $7.5 million for a pitcher who hasn’t thrown a pitch in nearly a year and a half, and one who has missed essentially the entire last 2 seasons. But wait, there’s more. If Orosco can throw 200 innings in any season, which is a big if, he will be awarded a $1,500,000 bonus essentially giving this deal to be a potential $10.5 million deal over 2 seasons for Orosco if he can stay healthy.