Johan Santana lands minor-league deal with Orioles
Last seen with the Mets, Johan Santana missed all of 2013 with a shoulder injury. (Julio Cortez/AP)
Johan Santana finally found a team willing to take a chance on his second comeback attempt, signing a minor-league deal with the Orioles on Tuesday that would pay him $3 million if he were to make the major-league roster with another $5.05 million of additional incentives based on games started and days on the 25-man roster. The Orioles seem very unlikely to have to pay any of that money, however, as Santana was last seen throwing in the low 80s in a workout for prospective employers and hasn't thrown a major-league pitch since August 2012. Since then, he's had a second surgery to repair a torn anterior capsule in his pitching shoulder, an injury which is frequently career-ending.
Santana first tore that anterior capsule in September 2010 and was unable to return to the majors until April 2012. Santana's fastball was sitting in the upper 80s upon his return, but he managed to slow down his changeup in accordance with that loss of velocity, maintaining a ten-mile-per-hour split between the two pitches that allowed him to pitch effectively for the first three months of the season. Over his first 16 starts, he posted a 2.76 ERA and struck out 8.5 men per nine innings, one of which was the first no-hitter in Mets history, a 134-pitch effort on June 1. However, Santana sprained his ankle covering first against the Cubs on July 6 and was ineffective after that, going 0-5 with a 15.63 ERA in his final five starts and, perhaps as a result of compensating for his ankle, re-tearing the capsule in his shoulder.
Chien-Ming Wang
Chris Young
Mark Prior
