Michael Wacha was injured in 2014, 2016, 2018 and to end 2019. Betting on good health in 2020 seems a risky proposition. Perhaps his Mets deal will have appearance incentives ala Wainwright's 2019 contract, opening the door for more guaranteed $ in 2021+. All the best to him.
Wacha if healthy would probably get at least 5/75. If you give him a 50% chance of being healthy all year a 25% chance of him being healthy half the year and a 25% chance of him not being healthy all year then his expected value at a $15 million annual value is more than $9 million. And that is without a long term commitment.
If good health had been on his side, he very well could have been a Cardinal HoFer one day. When he and Cole burst upon the scene as rooks with their respective teams, you almost would have had to flip a coin to pick between the two, if you had to choose one of them for your team.
Glad to see Wacha get a chance, and I hope he has a solid year and gets an even better deal in 2020. It’s a real shame that his shoulder has held him back so much but the talent is there to pitch well for stretches (see early 2018).
Wish him nothing but the best in health and performance (except the performance part when he’s playing the Cardinals). He always seemed like a good dude! I’ll always remember him as “one of the guys they got for Pujols walking”.