How About Jason Jennings?

The buzz around the blogosphere recently is that the Mets are open to adding another starter "if the price is right." While looking at the remaining free agent starters one may ask who is actually worth signing? The list is made up of mostly lackluster and uninspiring names who probobly will not amount to much in the 2010 season. However, there are a few names that have promise and could be serviceable as a back end starter. Names the Mets have been linked to are Jon Smoltz, Jarrod Washburn, and Chien Ming Wang. However, one name that strikes me as interesting is Jason Jennings.

Jennings was never much of a name during his career in Colorado, despite winning the 2002 Rookie of the Year award, mostly posting ERA's in the 5's. However, in 2006 he had a stellar year, in which he posted a decent ERA of 3.78 in Coors Field, and wound up with Houston. Jennings was a pretty solid pitcher while in Colorado, posting a combined 4.81 ERA and went 28-21 for what was a pretty horrendous Colorado Rockies team.

He played one season of pretty horrific ball in Houston in 2007, and then ended up on the other Texas team, the Rangers for the start of the 2008 season. The pitching hungry Rangers envisioned Jennings being a solid arm for their rotation, however his first season was riddled with injuries and Jennings became all but forgotten.

Last season however, Jennings came back from his injuries, and pitched pretty admirably for the Rangers. He posted a 4.13 ERA in 61 innings pitched, and had 44 strike outs during that period.

Now, he is not a name to write home about, and by no means am I advocating a major league contract, but I believe Jennings could be a solid pickup to compete for a rotation spot should the Mets not sign anyone who locks up a slot. Jennings was a decent pitcher for the Rockies earlier in his career. It could be argued that much of his stats were inflated by Coors Field and it's hitter friendly tendencies. Jennings has proven that he has the ability to win 10+ games, which would be a welcome addition to the back end of our rotation.