Remember Our Veterans

I like old people. But why do teams want veteran free-agent middle-relief pitchers so badly? Today’s example comes from an article discussing the Rangers’ off-season needs:

They want to add a veteran relief pitcher who can work late in the game...

They have interest in Eric Gagne coming back as their closer, but they may stick with Otsuka or Wilson as their ninth-inning guy and concentrate on finding a setup reliever. There is depth on the free-agent market in that area, including David Riske, Octavio Dotel, LaTroy Hawkins, Matt Herges, Ron Mahay, Rudy Seanez and Doug Brocail.

31-year-old Riske is a nice arm, and hasn’t exhibited Linebrink-like decline yet. After that, despite various degrees of success last year, there’s a lot of mileage on the arms of Dotel (33), Hawkins (34), Herges (37), Mahay (36), Seanez (39), Brocail (40). As I’ve written before, having these guys in your bullpen isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But veterans — like Linebrink — require more money and more security. To fill that last hole or two in the bullpen, a team would be wiser to take its chances with young pitchers who they won’t be stuck with if things don’t work out.