Chad Durbin to the Phillies...who, what, why?

The Phillies have signed Chad Durbin to a one year $900K deal. Definitely a low risk signing, but hard to see the upside.

Durbin has been around since 1999, but has pitched more than 50 innings only 4 of those years:

2000 72.1 IN / 8.21 ERA
2001 179 IN / 4.93 ERA
2004 51.1 IN / 6.66 ERA
2007 127.2 IN / 4.72 ERA

Those aren't real exciting numbers for sure. It appears Durbin will compete for the 5th starters position, but it's hard to imagine him winning the spot over a healthy Adam Eaton. Prior to last season's mess, Eaton did have a career 4.40 ERA. Durbin has a career 5.75 ERA, including last year's "career year".

In looking over last season's stats there is a silver lining on Durbin, if you take away his first 3 games where he gave up 16 runs in 13.2 innings, he actually compiled a 4.03 ERA.

So it appears that Durbin will compete for the starting rotation and be the long man out of the bullpen if he doesn't start. He could actually provide some solid innings pitched in either role, with the occasional bad outing sprinkled in between some solid outings. So there, Durbin provides some sort of upside.

The disappointing news out of this signing is the news that the Phillies are done searching for a starting pitcher or 3rd baseman. They are still interested in a left-handed reliever, which would appear to take Akinori Otsuka off the list.

If this is the end of the signings for the Phils, the bottom line is the same offense as last years with a mild upgrade to the pitching staff. Enough to compete, but does that put them over the top? Probably not.