R.A. Dickey clearly knows the meaning of a contract year.
The Mets’ 35-year-old knuckleballer has had far and away the best season of his career, and he will be handsomely rewarded for it. Dickey leads the Mets’ rotation in ERA (2.36), WHIP (1.18), home runs allowed (five), walks issued (28) and opponents’ batting average (.294). By the way, this is the same staff with ace Johan Santana.
New York’s most surprising star is also only making $600,000 this season, the final year of his contract. That figure will soon get much, much bigger.
A remarkable turnaround couldn’t have happened to a better player. Dickey bounced around the Rangers, Mariners and Twins organizations before landing in the Big Apple this year. What made it difficult to keep his ERA down and win total up was a missing piece — of ligament, that is. Texas medical staff found that he had no ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow. There was just nothing there.
“For him to be able to throw at all is pretty phenomenal in itself,” Rick Griffin, the Mariners’ head athletic trainer, said in an interview with The New York Times in 2008. “But he’s doing it in the major leagues. People in sports amaze you physically, but this is something you’d never suspect. It’s like a running back in the NFL having no anterior cruciate ligament in his knee. It’s amazing.”
By anyone’s guess, Dickey’s career was over after 2008. He split time as a reliever and starter in Texas from 2003 to 2006, with mixed results. In his first two years, he went a combined 15-15 with a 5.35 ERA and 33 home runs allowed. By 2006, he was ready to try out being a knuckleball pitcher, and the Rangers gave him one last shot. In his first start, Dickey allowed six home runs, tying the major league record with the Red Sox’ Tim Wakefield. The Rangers had seen enough, and he was sent to the minors.
Stops in Seattle (5-8, 5.21 ERA with 14 starts, 15 homers allowed) and Minnesota (35 relief appearances, 4.62 ERA, 30 walks given in 64 1/3 innings) didn’t last more than a year. He was a knuckleball pitcher who couldn’t throw the knuckleball effectively.
Then, something clicked in 2010. Milling in the Mets’ minor league system, the Mets called him up for a start on May 19. After six innings, Dickey threw 98 pitches and yielded just five hits and two runs. Maybe he would stick around.
His performance on the mound, however, has been much more than sticking around.
He averages 6 2/3 innings per start, and has made it through the sixth inning in 14 of his 16 starts. His walks are down drastically — his 28 free passes in 99 innings is fewer than the 30 he issued in 64 1/3 innings last year, and he gives up hardly any homers. Dickey is the ace in the hole the Mets’ pitching staff needed after Mike Pelfrey’s struggles and John Maine crashed and burned once again.
If the Mets are smart, they will lock Dickey up before the calendar turns to October. Primo pitchers are in high demand, and contenders will always shell out big bucks for a reliable arm, let alone a dominant one.
"Doctors look at me and say I shouldn’t be able to turn a doorknob without feeling pain, and I shouldn’t be able to turn the key and start my car without feeling pain," Dickey said. "But I’m still here."
He’s here, all right. Here to stay. It’s just a matter of if he will be calling Citi Field home next season.
