Bruce Chen, the one-time, up-and-coming lefty the Phillies received from the Braves in June of 2000 when the Andy Ashby experiment went horribly wrong, signed a minor-league contract with the Texas Rangers today. Word is Chen has a pretty good chance to crack the Rangers’ rotation as the fifth starter behind Kevin Millwood, Vicente Padilla, Robinson Tejeda and Brandon McCarthy. Take away McCarthy and add Nelson Figueroa, Brandon Duckworth, Omar Daal or Robert Person and it could be the 2001 Phillies.
Nevertheless, the interesting part isn’t that Chen is joining the Texas ex-Phillies or that he is looking to rebound after a poor 2006 season where he went 0-7 with 6.93 ERA in 40 games for the Orioles. The interesting part is that Chen has a chance to pitch for his ninth Major League team and 10th organization since breaking in with the Braves in 1998.
Yeah, that’s nine teams and countless minor-league clubs. Nine teams in 10 seasons. The Braves, Phillies, Mets, Expos, Reds, Astros, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Orioles and now Rangers. He’s been traded three times, waived twice, granted free agency three other times and pitched for a team that no longer exists.
He also pitched for Panama in the World Baseball Classic, which many suggest was the source of his rough 2006 season after winning 13 games with a 3.83 ERA in nearly 200 innings for the Orioles in 2005. But when looking at Chen’s record the 2005 season is a noticeable aberrance. Only twice in the seven prior seasons had Chen topped 78 innings or had an ERA below the league average.
Plus, Chen has long baffled his managers with what they call a dearth of “toughness.” Needless to report, former Phillies manager Larry Bowa quickly ran out of patience with Chen. So too did Frank Robinson in Montreal and a bunch of GMs scattered about both leagues. Friendly and easygoing, Chen seemed to throw just one bad pitch in his poor outings or struggle with his training program from time to time. That seemed to disappear over parts of three seasons in Baltimore despite the struggles last year.
But the big question still lingers: just how does Chen keep cracking big-league rosters year after year?
The first answer is obvious – Chen is left-handed. Lefties not only have a longer shelf life that right-handers, but also are in demand. Every team needs one or wants one and sometimes a warm body will do just fine.
Plus, Chen was once the minor league pitcher-of-the-year in the Braves' vaunted stable of up-and-coming pitchers. Pitching coach Leo Mazzone spoke highly of him even after he was traded for the first time.
Another reason is Chen’s age. With all his experience (and left-handedness) Chen doesn’t turn 30 until June 19, which makes him a relatively young lefty.
Then there are the glimpses of potential and greatness that warrant teams into giving him a shot time after time. For the Phillies, the high-water mark for Chen was when he baffled the playoff-bound Giants for 8 2/3 innings, allowing just two hits and three walks with seven strikeouts. Chen took a no-decision in a game decided on Bobby Abreu’s walk-off, inside-the-park homer.
The following season, Chen started the first game back at Shea Stadium following Sept. 11 by holding the Braves to six hits and no earned runs over seven innings in an emotional outing during the throes of a pennant chase.
There’s more, like the seven-inning shutout Chen tossed at the A’s in his debut for the Orioles in 2004. Three starts later he turned in a complete-game to beat the Blue Jays. In his breakthrough 2005 season Chen’s first four starts were against the Red Sox and Yankees where he won two games, including a complete game to beat New York. In 14 of his 32 starts in ’05, Chen pitched into the seventh inning – in comparison, Vicente Padilla only reached the seventh seven times for the Phillies in 2005.
Whether or not Chen hangs on with the Rangers remains to be seen. What is clearly evident is there is a team out there somewhere that will take a chance on him.