Kimbrel to Nationals about to happen

[DiscGolfer]

 

According to La Velle, the Twins are in on Kimbrel and Keuchel on one year deals only.

 

A one year for Keuchel is all I'd want too. I'd like Kimbrel on a three year deal though.

 

That makes sense, but I don't see either player settling for one year deals.

[drock2190]

Signing relievers to big money hardly ever pans out.

 

Anyone see Reed these days? Dude looks over matched in spring training. 2 year flop for 16 million.

[DiscGolfer]

 

Signing relievers to big money hardly ever pans out.

 

Anyone see Reed these days? Dude looks over matched in spring training. 2 year flop for 16 million.

 

Too early in spring to panic about anything.  But his box score doesn't look good so far, gave up a grand slam today.  Definitely worth keeping an eye on though.  Hopefully other pitchers will step up so he won't have to be relied on too much if the struggles continue into the regular season.

[jorgenswest]

They probably could have signed Miller for the money they paid Cruz. They would have needed to commit another year to Britton. Maybe they could have won that deal at 3/42.

 

They chose to sign Cruz and invested in the pitching staff in hopes of being everyone forward.

 

I might have gone with the reliever and hoped on the bat of Austin and Austudillo but it isn’t clear to me that a good reliever is the better way to go.

[Mike Sixel]

 

Signing relievers to big money hardly ever pans out.

 

Anyone see Reed these days? Dude looks over matched in spring training. 2 year flop for 16 million.

 

Relying on the next AA or AAA guy after you've gone through 5-10 hardly ever works out either.....no one ever looks at the alternatives, that produce negative WAR over and over.

[nicksaviking]

Signing relievers to big money hardly ever pans out.

 

Anyone see Reed these days? Dude looks over matched in spring training. 2 year flop for 16 million.

It tends to work out better if teams evaluate them on velocity, command and workload over last few years instead of the stats on the back of their baseball card. By nature, relievers are always going to be heroes or victims based on small sample sizes but I think there are several more reliable predictors.

[nater79a]

 

When I think of Kimbrel I think of Melancon. Perhaps, he has a good year or two left.

 

Seems like a lot of red flags were popping up with Kimbrel last season.  Drop in velo, spin rate down and especially the control.  And he's 31. Don't think I'd touch him for any term over two years.

 

[nytwinsfan]

 

Other than they spent nearly all their free agent money there, and almost none on pitching....

 

Transactions are based not just on demand, but also supply and price.  There was very little supply for good starting pitching and a lot of supply for good hitting.  You might be right as to relief pitching, where there were way more options at reasonable prices, and they didn't go for any of them. 

[cardsfan]

The Twins top 3 all time save leaders are Nathan, Aguilera, and Guardado. None of them profiled as a closer when the Twins acquired them. It is within the realm of possibility that May, or Romero will follow a similar path. They certainly have the stuff to close.

Actually Perkins is 3rd at 120.

[ChrisKnutson]

The Padres and Red Sox were each able to trade for Kimbrel, in his prime, for ultimately a pretty a modest cost.

 

Is there any reliever out there available in trade? Unfortunately the Mariners tied Edwin Diaz to Robinson Cano this winter...

He won’t come cheap, but I’m pretty sure Jose Leclerc is on the market. If not, Mychal Givens is always an option.

[howieramone2]

 

I'm not sure of your data source, but the MLBTR Free Agent tracker and B-Ref disagree:

 

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2018-mlb-free-agent-tracker/sort_column-aav__sort_direction-0__positions-rp

 

From the top 15 RP names in that list (so, not counting SP Mike Minor), there are 5 guys who recorded more than 1 WAR at B-Ref: Morrow, Hunter, Cishek, Petit, and Davis. (Edit to add: I sorted by AAV, but sorting by total amount yields the same 5 names in the top 15.) Davis was the only one of those 5 below 1.4 WAR. Cishek even had 2.3. (Neshek among the top 15 also posted 0.8 WAR in just half a season of work.)

 

Just beyond the top 15, the 16th guy in that list (Rodney) posted 1.0 WAR, and the 17th guy posted 0.9 WAR too, and they only earned ~$4.5 mil each. They may not strictly meet your "more than 1 WAR" criteria, but those are still good deals.

 

It wasn't a good year for a few higher-profile FA relievers, but good teams can still find benefits in this general group. The Cubs, Phillies, A's, and even Astros all did pretty well with FA relievers. The Rockies? Not so much.

Got the info from MLB Trade Rumors during one of their chats. 

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

Got the info from MLB Trade Rumors during one of their chats. 

Regardless of where you think you saw it, it's still not true.

[Doomtints]

This team is being run like the Rangers were run. *shrug*

[USAFChief]

 

Got the info from MLB Trade Rumors during one of their chats. 

link?