THE DETROIT TIGERS HAVE A CLOSER! (again) Their new ninth inning man is veteran Francisco Rodriguez, who the club acquired on Wednesday from the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for minor leaguer Javier Betancourt.
The #Brewers have traded RHP Francisco Rodriguez to Detroit in exchange for INF Javier Betancourt and a player to be named.
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) November 18, 2015
tigers will absorb $9.5M left on k-rod thru '16 in the deal (uncluding '17 buyout). so milw gets savings here.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) November 18, 2015
K-Rod will turn 34 (really, only 34?) in January, and is coming off a season in which he pitched to a 2.21 ERA in 57 innings, striking out 62 and walking 11. He saved 38 games and blew just two for the fourth place Brewers, who he has been with since coming over at the 2011 trade deadline from the Mets (minus a 22 inning spell with the Orioles in 2013 before heading back to Milwaukee as a free agent that winter).
This is more about saving money for the Brewers than anything else – because the Tigers are taking on all of Rodriguez’s contract, Milwaukee drops their total payroll commitment to just under $46 million on five players for the 2016 season and $32.75 million on three players (which includes the buyout on a Jonathan Lucroy club option that will surely be exercised) for the 2017 season. If Milwaukee is also able to move Adam Lind and his contract this winter, which is expected, their payroll will drop to a little less than $38 million committed for this season.
As for the Tigers, their bullpens were hilariously awful during their run at the top of the AL Central. Over the last three seasons, their bullpen ERA has never been south of 4.00, and it hasn’t been better than 3.79 since 2006. As context, the league average bullpen ERA has been below 4.00 in every season since 2010. Detroit has used six different full-time closers over the ten years, including Joaquin Benoit, Joe Nathan, Fernando Rodney, Joakim Soria, Todd Jones, and Jose Valverde. None were really dominant aside from Benoit, who didn’t become the closer until 2013, his final year with the club.
Now, it’s K-Rod’s turn. He’s clearly not the same pitcher he was in his youth with the Angels, but is still a largely effective reliever. His strikeout rate of 26.4% ranks 29th among the 108 relievers with at least 200 innings pitched over the last five seasons, and his walk rate of 7.8% is good for 42nd. However, his propensity to allow dingers (which should be helped, in theory at least) has led to a 3.53 FIP over the last five years, 65th in the league. If you move the bar back from the 2011 season to 2013 and just look at the last three years, his K% of 27.9% ranks 19th of 90 pitchers with at least 150 innings pitched, and his BB% of 6.4% ranks 22nd. But again, he suffers because of the dingers – his 3.74 FIP ranks a cool 72nd of those 90 relievers.
This is a worthy deal for the Brewers to make, if only for the salary they’ve cleared. Betancourt isn’t some sort of slam dunk prospect – he’s just 20, and hit .263/.304/.336 in high-A last season with three homers and four steals. He came into the year as roughly a top 20 prospect in the Tigers organization. But Milwaukee didn’t need a capital C closer, let alone one they had nearly $10 million committed to. They’re not going anywhere this year, so why not clear some cash, bring in another prospect, and let a younger pitcher like Will Smith or Jeremy Jeffress handle the ninth inning role? It simply makes sense to do that.
As for the Tigers? Just getting more live bodies in that bullpen is worth it for them. Given the consistently rough state of their bullpen, that’s probably for the best, even if the team doesn’t appear to be the class of the AL Central any longer.
