I love my parents to death, but man, why couldn’t I have been born left-handed? I blame them for me being right-handed and not giving me the chance to be a mediocre left-handed pitcher in the Major Leagues.

If you are a mediocre left-handed pitcher, you will be given chance after chance after chance after chance. And one day, all of the stars will align and you will get paid.

In 13 Major League seasons, Bruce Chen has a 8.6 WAR. He has been worth a grand total of eight wins over the course of 13 years. To put that in perspective, Roy Halladay was worth 8.2 wins to the Philadelphia Phillies in 2011.

Despite his mediocrity throughout the years, Chen has made almost $10 million in his career and today, he just signed a contract that will potentially pay him more than that for the next two years.

Bruce signed a two-year, $9 million contract with the Kansas City Royals today according to Jon Heyman of SI.com. Chen can also earn another $1 million in incentives and will get another $1 million roster bonus.

I can joke about Chen and how that’s a lot of boxes of ziti to give a guy who hasn’t done much in his career, but when you look at things seriously, $4.5 million is the going rate for a pitcher of Chen’s caliber these days.

Chen had a Higher WAR (1.7) then A.J. Burnett, Randy Wolf, Wandy Rodriguez, and Jeremy Hellickson. Considering the salaries per year of some of those other pitchers, $4.5 million for Chen doesn’t look that bad all of a sudden.

With Chen back in the fold, the Royals’ starting rotation currently looks something like this…

1. Luke Hochevar

2. Bruce Chen

3. Jonathan Sanchez

4. Felipe Paulino

5. Aaron Crow

That’s well, not that great, but the first three in that rotation are certainly serviceable. I would keep Crow in the bullpen and pencil Danny Duffy into the No. 5 spot, but that’s just me.

Chen finished the 2011 with a 12-8 record and a 3.77 ERA in 155 innings.

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By The Baseball Index