Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal has the scoop on reliever Dan Wheeler, a type B free agent.
Wheeler must be confident in his ability to get a better deal in free agency. He's coming off a decent year. His 4.38 ERA over 49 innings doesn't look good, but FanGraphs notes he had a 3.71 xFIP, so he pitched a little better than his ERA indicates. In that same page, you can see that Bill James has him projected for a 2.80 ERA in 2012, which I'm sure would be something GMs will pay for.
I wouldn't mind having Wheeler back -- with the usual caveat -- at the right price. I certainly wouldn't commit several years to him, but if we can get him for a year or two on the cheap, I think he could pitch better than we saw last year.
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