Maybe you have not heard this earlier than, however reduction pitching is risky. Reliever efficiency typically fluctuates wildly from 12 months to 12 months. At occasions, that results in speedy ascensions from obscurity to stardom for gamers. Look no additional than final 12 months’s three-year, $33MM deal for Robert Stephenson with the Angels. He’d been designated for task lower than a calendar 12 months prior however was so dominant in 42 video games with the Rays that the Angels ponied up that weighty three-year deal.
Stephenson is only one of many situations of this, in fact. Liam Hendriks had been designated for task by 4 totally different groups earlier than breaking out with the A’s. In actual fact, Oakland was one of many 4 groups who’d chosen to DFA him. He went unclaimed on waivers. Drew Pomeranz had been bounced from the Giants’ rotation in 2019 and was doubtlessly on the cusp of being reduce unfastened himself when a stretch of simply 4 reduction appearances prompted the Brewers to surrender a authentic infield prospect (Mauricio Dubon) to amass him in a commerce. Pomeranz dominated for Milwaukee for 2 extra months and went on to ink a four-year, $34MM deal in free company.
Reliever fortunes can flip rapidly, and the upcoming free agent class presents the newest instance. It is at all times enjoyable to marvel who is likely to be the subsequent Hendriks, Pomeranz or Stephenson — and on this occasion, it is much more enjoyable as a result of the excitement identify in the marketplace was traded for a kind of very relievers just some years again.
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