Mike Dunn, Miami Marlins Agree to Two-Year Deal

The Miami Marlins were not able to come to terms with three players at the arbitration deal deadline. They defeated newly acquired Mat Latos in their arbitration case earlier this week and were able to come to terms with reliever Mike Dunn on a two-year deal on Sunday night, to avoid arbitration.

The deal was reported by O’Connell Sports, the sports agency that represents Mike Dunn.

Since initially acquiring Mike Dunn, along with Omar Infante, from the Braves for Dan Uggla, Dunn has been a key cog in the Marlins bullpen. The left hander has made at least 60 appearances in each of his four seasons with the ballclub.

Last year, Dunn posted a 3.16 ERA and a 3.06 FIP in 57 innings of work. Dunn struck out 27.4% of the hitters he faced and walked a career low of 9% in 2014. The season before, he posted a 2.66 ERA and a 3.12 FIP in 67 2/3 innings of work.

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Both 2013 and 2014 were vast improvements from his 2011-2012 seasons with the Marlins, when he posted a 4.04 ERA and a 4.10 FIP in 107 innings of work.

Dunn actually led the Marlins team in wins last season, further proof that the win statistic is a terrible way to judge a pitchers season.

For his career, Dunn has posted a 3.36 ERA and a 3.63 FIP in 254 2/3 innings of work. He’ll be entering his age 29 season in 2015. Steamer projections predicts another strong season for the left hander, projecting a 2.94 ERA and a 3.33 FIP in 65 innings.

Dunn will earn $2.35 million in 2015, which actually falls into line with the $2.3 million projected salary number Matt Swartz and MLB Trade Rumors predicted he would earn. He’ll earn $3.45 million in 2015.

The two-year deal buys out both remaining seasons of arbitration that Dunn has remaining.

The $2.35 million figure is actually the exact total the Marlins had countered Dunn with, as he had requested a $2.6 million salary for the 2015 season.

It’s interesting that the Marlins signed Dunn to a two-year extension, especially considering closer Steve Cishek signed for just one year to avoid arbitration, despite having interest in a multi-year deal extension from the team.

With Latos and Dunn now both out of the way, David Phelps is the Marlins lone player left to deal with for an arbitration case.

Dunn now joins Mike Morse and Martin Prado as players that will have their contracts run out after the 2016 season. Giving the Marlins a two-year window to win with this current core group, before Giancarlo Stanton‘s extension really begins to kick in.

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