Some Yankee fans are advocating the Yankees go to arbitration with Chien Ming Wang and give him $4+ million just on the chance he may come back at some point in 2010.

Well, if we’re going to take a chance on an oft-injured pitcher, why not take it on a pitcher that makes Chien Ming Wang look like fecal matter? We’re talking about the pitcher whose body is held together by duct tape, Rich Harden.

Before everyone flips out and yells at us for advocating the signing of a starting pitcher who has only reached 150 innings once in his 7-year career, especially since we lambasted the AJ Burnett signing, just give us a second.

Obviously it all comes down to price, and we’re not saying the Yankees should sign Harden at all costs. Looking over the internets, we haven’t seen any mentions of what Harden is looking for, so all we can do now is speculate.

But, the economy is still terrible and you figure most organizations will be acting frugal, so the idea of signing an injury-prone pitcher to a substantial deal is a financial risk most teams won’t want to take. Thus, Harden may not be in a position to demand major dollars, and perhaps the Yankees can scoop him up on a reasonable, even incentive-based deal and assume the risk. Considering the Yankees have a tentative rotation (assuming Pettitte is re-signed) of Sabathia-Burnett-Pettitte-Hughes-Joba and some other options in reserve, it’s not like you’d be looking for a 200-inning horse in Harden. You could sign him to a deal somewhat reflective of what you would expect from him. Plus, the Yankees somehow got 200+ innings out of Burnett this season, so perhaps they could work their Mr. Myagi healing tactics on Harden.

Over the last two seasons, Harden has made 51 starts over 289 IP, which is the most innings he’s pitched in back-to-back seasons since 2004-2005. Over this stretch, he struck out 352 hitters for a video game-like K/9 of 11.0 and a K/BB of 2.72. All of this was good for an ERA+ of 145 (3.05 ERA)!! When Harden is healthy, he is one of the best pitchers in the game.

He was shut down at the end of 2009, but according to Harden and his agent, Arn “Anderson” Tellem, it was not due to injury (grain of salt):

“He’s fine,” Tellem said. “If the team had been in the race, he would have been pitching. No health issues at all.”

Source

Harden has been healthier over the past 2 seasons, and even if the Yankees can only get the 140 innings he’s averaged over that time, they’d be getting 140 innings from one of the best pitchers in baseball. Again, we’re not saying the Yankees should write Harden a blank check, but if there is any team can take advantage of the still terrible economy and accept the financial risk of acquiring a high-risk, sky-high reward pitcher like Harden, it’s the 27-time World Champions.

harden_hospital
Yes, he spends more time in a hospital than on a pitcher’s mound, but the Yankees wouldn’t need him to be an innings-eater.