Anticipating the worst: Scouting the reliever market

By On June 9, 2011 · 9 Comments · In Trade Musings

With news coming down yesterday that was ticketed for the 15-day disabled list with an elbow issue, I couldn’t help but think the worst. I’m optimistic that he won’t miss extended time and I’m hoping will be back when he’s supposed to, but my hopes mean nothing. There’s always the possibility that both guys end up out for an extended period of time. If so, the Yankees will have to dip into their (considerable) resources and make a move for a reliever.

Before exploring any trade, though, I’m sure the Yankees would like to look internally. They could call on Ryan Pope who’s on the 40-man, as is , but he’s hurt right now. Steve Garrison could be called on to replace , but is that really going to help? Dellin Betances and Andrew Brackman are on the 40-man as well, but calling either one of them up to pitch in the bullpen at this point would not be wise. I’d imagine we’d hear George Kontos and Kevin Whelan discussed as possibilities as well. If they want to go outside the organization, pickings may be just as slim.

Going solely on guys who will be free agents next year, there aren’t many worthwhile trade options. I picked out three from the list: Oakland’s , Minnesota’s , and San Diego’s .

Wuertz is striking out plenty of batters, as he usually does, though he’s also giving up his fair share of home runs, which is unattractive. His HR/9 sits at 1.02, above his 0.93 career mark. His 2.55 ERA is nice, as are his 3.95 FIP and 3.71 xFIP. He’s also upped his grounders a lot, and sports a 50% GB rate, up from 41% last year and 44.1% for his career. His strand rate, though is at 85.5% (75.2 career) and his BABIP is at .178 (.277 career). It seems like there are some mixed signals coming out of Wuertz, but he’s definitely worth a look at the deadline.

Matt Capps has a “meh” 4.33 ERA and 4.05 FIP, but his xFIP is is 3.73. Strikeouts are down and homers are up for Capps, which is not good, but his walks are way down at 0.67 BB/9 (1.67 career). His groundball rate is down to 33.3% which is also alarming, especially if we transpose him to Yankee Stadium. Lots of flyballs = no bueno in the Bronx.

Heath Bell is having a Heath Bell season, though his strikeouts are down a lot.

Are any of these guys going to be available? I think Wuertz and Capps definitely will be since their teams are already out of it or are on the way to being out of it. They could probably be had for something relatively cheap. Bell I wouldn’t count on, but the Padres are in last in the NL West right now. The Cardinals and Rangers have already checked in on him, and I assume the Yankees will do the same at some point. Does that mean he’ll be available? Not necessarily. If he is, though, I can see the Yankees throwing their hat in the ring. Bell’s cost, though, would likely be higher than your average reliever since he is, well, better than your average reliever.

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9 Responses to Anticipating the worst: Scouting the reliever market

  1. Bpdelia says:
    June 9, 2011 at 11:47 am

    I disagree that calling on brackman or bettances as a one inning reliever is a mistake. Brackman is getting near rhe point where he should scrap the third pitch anf be moved to thr pen. Hes 26 now. Hes about to be a free agent and he still only has two oitches. As for bettances there is nothing wrong with calling on him in august as he nears his innings cap and getting him to use his two ++ oitches to help the big club.

    Reply
    • Matt Imbrogno says:
      June 9, 2011 at 12:22 pm

      1. He’s not about to be a free agent.
      2. He may be 26, but that’s certainly not his “baseball age”, so to speak.

      Reply
      • T.O. Chris says:
        June 9, 2011 at 6:07 pm

        I think he’s referring to the fact that he has to be on the team roster next season, because his contract is a major league one.

        I wouldn’t be thrilled about moving Brackman to the pen, but it’s a much better idea than Betances. It would silly to have him limit the amount of innings he will pitch this season, skip triple A altogether, and make him pitch stressful win now innings out of the Yankee pen. You are setting him up for failure or worse, injury. He needs to stay where he is and build up arm strength and innings.

        Reply
  2. Frank says:
    June 9, 2011 at 11:53 am

    No mention of Tim Norton who was just moved to AAA yesterday and has been lights out.Don’t know much about him, but I read in Suday’s Daily News that according to Madden,a scout told him Norton is better than Joba right now.

    Reply
  3. Professor Longnose says:
    June 9, 2011 at 2:13 pm

    I don’t like the idea of wasting trade resources trading for middle relievers. Can’t we try the ol’ “grab a whole bunch of guys from the scrapheap and hope one can give you 50 decent innings” thing?

    Reply
    • Matt Imbrogno says:
      June 9, 2011 at 2:20 pm

      I think that option has been exhausted with Garcia and Colon, haha. Doubt they’d want to push their luck. I’d rather they try the internal guys first, to be honest.

      Reply
  4. Eli Freund says:
    June 9, 2011 at 5:54 pm

    Why wouldn’t they bring up Norton? He’s 28 years old and has nothing really to prove in the minor leagues anymore, he’s gotta be better than some of the fodder the Yanks have in the pen right now.

    Reply
    • T.O. Chris says:
      June 9, 2011 at 6:04 pm

      One reason could be because he was just sent to the DL. He pitched an inning yesterday and was immediately place on the triple A 7 day DL.

      Reply

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