Philadelphia Phillies, Dontrelle Willis agree on one-year deal on passing physical -MLB Update
The only thing stopping Philadelphia and Dontrelle Willis from signing an agreement for the upcoming 2012 Major League Baseball (MLB) regular season was a pending physical, which the player passed on Thursday afternoon following the announcement of the one-year
mutual deal between the Phillies and the player the very same day.
The Philadelphia Phillies are believed to have signed on the left handed player to one-year deal worth $850,000, making them his fourth team in the past three seasons as Willis remains determined to have a breakthrough and finally come out of the bullpen.
“I’m excited,” Willis said.
Philadelphia has plans to use the veteran starting pitchers experience on their line-up next year for some of the younger players on the team along with providing him with an opportunity to get something out of the season.
“Dontrelle, I believe, is at a point in his career where he is ready to make the transition to being an effective reliever,” Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro said in a statement released by the team. “Because of his experience, past success and overall
positive energy, we feel this will be an opportunity to benefit both him and the team, especially with the success he has had against left-handed hitters, both recently and over the course of his career.”
In the last season with the Cincinnati Reds, Willis was 1-6 with a .500 ERA and kept the hitters to a .127 average.
Willis also is second in the MLB for compiled games, 15 at the moment from 2003-2006 being behind Livan Hernandez along with 58 wins, putting him at the fourth position in the league in that category.
The player from Oakland, California, United States, has over eight years of experience is the major league playing with various teams like the Detroit Tigers, Arizona Diamondbacks, Cincinnati Red and now the next season with Philadelphia Phillies.
It will be interesting to see if Dontrelle Willis will have what it takes now to actually make a breakthrough and move up in the rankings, which is not only the optimism of the player but the team as well looking to change things around the next season.
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