McCarthy, Diamondbacks Agree to 2-year Deal

According to talk show host John Gambadoro of 620 KTAR in Phoenix, Arizona, Brandon McCarthy has agreed to a two-year, $15.5 million deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

McCarthy, 29, had a record 17-15 with an ERA of 3.29 over the last two seasons with the Oakland Athletics. Last season he had a record of 8-6 with an ERA of 3.24. In 2011, he set a franchise record for strikeout-to-walk ratio with a mark of 4.92. His 2012 season was cut short by a serious head injury suffered when he was struck by a line drive off the bat of the Angels’ Erick Aybar. McCarthy underwent emergency brain surgery and at one point it was unknown if he would survive the incident.

Over the past several weeks it had become more and more apparent that the A’s weren’t prepared to offer McCarthy as much money as other teams. Coupled with the fact that Oakland is also stacked with starting pitchers already, it isn’t a surprise that they didn’t want to pony up so much money one an additional pitcher, regardless of how much of a fan favorite McCarthy and his wife had become, bonding with many fans through Twitter.

The Athletics previously re-signed Bartolo Colon to a one-year $3 million deal, which dwarfs in comparison to the money McCarthy received in Arizona. He may have given Oakland a hometown discount, but not one on that scale.

Ultimately, Oakland felt they didn’t need the starting pitching, with Brett Anderson back healthy and A.J. Griffin emerging to join a solid and improving Jarrod Parker and Tommy Milone and Dan Straily also in the mix.

However, losing McCarthy is something of a blow emotionally as well as from a performance point of view. McCarthy’s teammates, all A’s employees, A’s fans and media all had such great concern for McCarthy when he needed emergency brain surgery last September that I think everyone feels a little extra connection to him now.