That’s Not Impact Pitching

Per Dan Hayes the Twins have signed Homer Bailey and Rich Hill. Homer Bailey will be an interesting project 5th starter and Rich Hill will be really solid, when he’s healthy and that won’t be until July at best. These signings don’t fit Falvey’s “impact pitching” he said he’d go get, a quote he probably is wishing he never said now.

Homer Bailey

Coming off his best year since 2013, Homer Bailey pitched about league average with the Royals and A’s totaling 163 and a third innings with a FIP of 4.11, he also possessed a respectable BB/9 of 2.9 and K/9 of 8.2. When comparing this to Kyle Gibson’s year last year with a FIP of 4.26, BB/9 of 3.2, and a K/9 of 9.0, Homer Bailey looks a lot like Gibby’s replacement in the rotation. Wes Johnson’s black magic abilities here are certainly intriguing adding the hope that Bailey could be more than just Gibby’s replacement.

Rich Hill

A healthy Rich Hill that can go all season and you’re sure you’ll get 170 IP from, is impact pitching. However, Rich Hill is 40 and coming off injury, so *maybe* *hopefully* come July or August he can be an impact pitcher. But that’s a whole lot of hoping for a 40 year old. Hill has totaled 327 Innings in the last 3 years with FIPs of 3.72 3.97 and 4.10. In that we can already see that Hill has been in a steady decline, so that hope of impact pitching I stated earlier might not even be true at all and he could just end up another guy at the back of the rotation. If that is the case, the Twins really will have a plethora of arms to use in the 4/5 slots with Bailey, Dobnak, Smeltzer, Thorpe and potentially Hill.

Spending only $10 Million guaranteed here is really good and leaves room for a potential Donaldson deal which would transform the offseason into somewhat of a success at the least.