John Gant

[Sports Guy]

John Gant has elected free agency.  He just turned 29 in August. He’s not a sexy name but he’s a solid pitcher for us to bring in.  He has shown he can start and relieve.

He has a sub 4 career ERA spanning 372 IP.  His career K rate is under 8 and he has a high walk rate. 
 

But he gets a good amount of ground balls and his career FIP is 4.31.  He has been all over the place in terms of missing bats but he has shown he can do that an average above average level.  
 

I don’t think he’s some great pitcher but for what the Os will spend, he’s probably about as good at it will get.  Some kind of deal for 2/6 or so may work.

This is MLBTR update on him:

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/11/john-gant-elects-free-agency.html

[Three Run Homer]

The O's pitching staff was an embarrassment in 2021.  It is ridiculous how many starts they gave to people whose ERAs were north of 6--basically, every starter other than John Means and Bruce Zimmerman.  They need to bring in some competent pitchers who can soak up innings, and Gant fits the bill.  

[waroriole]

The description of him sounds like Jorge Lopez. Walks are a concern, has done much better in a relief role. Lopez gets more Ks though. 
 

Still, better than at least half of our current OD roster pitching options. 

[sportsfan8703]

The article says “Terrible Metrics”. I don’t see Elias being interested here. Plus, I think waiver claims will be on relievers with upside versus SP with bad metrics. Nowadays teams are built from the back of the bullpen out. So if in 2022, we can piece together Means, Rodriguez and Hall, with two of the other SP prospects panning out, then we’re in good shape to compete. Or then you go get what you need. The scary thing about this bunch of SP prospects is we still don’t know what we have. 

[interloper]

Sounds like a reasonable replacement for a guy like Plutko. Someone in that role.

[Sports Guy]

3 hours ago, waroriole said:

The description of him sounds like Jorge Lopez. Walks are a concern, has done much better in a relief role. Lopez gets more Ks though. 
 

Still, better than at least half of our current OD roster pitching options. 

Except Lopez never had his level of success.  

[HowAboutThat]

26 minutes ago, interloper said:

Sounds like a reasonable replacement for a guy like Plutko. Someone in that role.

Why, in God’s sweet name, do we want a guy like Plutko?

[Jagwar]

8 hours ago, Philip said:

Why, in God’s sweet name, do we want a guy like Plutko?

Somebody is going to have to help eat 1,458 innings next year on a losing team?

[interloper]

9 hours ago, Philip said:

Why, in God’s sweet name, do we want a guy like Plutko?

Well hopefully he'd be much better than Plutko. You tend to take these things at face value a little too much. What I'm saying is he sounds like he could be a decent candidate for a long relief role, someone who can eat some innings. We began the year with Plutko filling that role very well until he totally imploded after a month or so.

[Sports Guy]

6 minutes ago, interloper said:

Well hopefully he'd be much better than Plutko. You tend to take these things at face value a little too much. What I'm saying is he sounds like he could be a decent candidate for a long relief role, someone who can eat some innings. We began the year with Plutko filling that role very well until he totally imploded after a month or so.

I think there’s a good chance that if the Os signed him, it would be as a starter but I do believe reliever is the best spot for him.

If he can come in and be a sub 4 ERA reliever that eats 70-80 innings, that’s valuable.  It’s not great but it’s valuable.

As a starter, I would hope he could give us 4-5 innings of sub 5 ERA baseball.  Again, not great but it’s something and it would provide a little value.  A 1-2 year deal at 2-4M a year is fine.