Orioles interested in Brasier?

[Sports Guy]

 

[interloper]

I view him as a Webb-type 7th inning guy, but with more track record and a newfound cutter courtesy of LA. So I'm on board. This teams needs more relief options. 

[Greg Pappas]

The 36-year old righty had a 3.02 ERA for the season:  7.09 with Boston and 0.70 with the Dodgers. His FIP was 3.18.  He has a career ERA of 3.88.  

Edited January 5 by Greg Pappas

[Sports Guy]

I hope this isn’t really interest although he does have some decent statcast numbers in some categories. 

[Just Regular]

Brasier and Kimbrel were part of the 2018 Red Sox champs with MVP Steve Pearce.

I believe Brasier was one of their middle relievers discussed in The MVP Machine book.    There was a section about postseason preparation, and the Club guiding a couple of them through changing their breaking balls for the postseason.     

[ScGO's]

If they go after Braisier its bc the O's see something in the data, probably something similar to what LA saw.

There's still a lot of good relief arms left on the board

[Aristotelian]

Would be great to get production from a guy who the Sox gave up on but hard to trust him. Will be interesting to compare his contract to what Givens got.

[UMDTerrapins]

I got a feeling Brasier will be a good fit and support our starters well. It’s all about knowing when to go to Brasier and not mishandling when you do. Don’t want to go to Brasier too early but probably before the back end of the bullpen. I just feel bad because whatever his role, everyone will be happy when Brasier is removed. Quick question….would we be signing Brasier or would it be a “hiring”? 

[RZNJ]

If the Orioles are looking at relief arms it makes me think they are skeptical of Tate coming back or are leaning towards Wells back to the rotation.

[Tony-OH]

I don't want anyone who's name rhymes with Frazier.

He does have 17 games of post season experience so he's a bit of a been there, done that kind of guy.

Seriously though, I have a hard time getting that awful appearance against the Orioles out of my head in the famous Ryan McKenna dropped flyball game.

So obviously he was pretty horrid with Boston the last two years and looked about done, until the trade to the Dodgers who must've unlocked something.

So what did they unlock? To the Baseball Savant (picture a Batman-esque segway).

First thing I looked at was his pitch selection and since he only pitched for the Dodgers from June on, you get a nice clean split when you look it month to month.

The first thing that jumps out to me is the Dodgers cut his usage of his ineffective 4-seamer from over 50% usage (50.7% in Apr and 55% in May with Boston) down 34.1 % in his first month while introducing a cutter to him. Adding the cutter to his fastball, sinker, slider mix allowed each of the pitches to eventually play and by September, he was pretty untouchable (Batters slashed .139/.225/.139/.364 in 40 PAs against him in Sep).

So the question is, how much faith do the Orioles have in a going to be 36-year-old reliever (turns 37 in Aug) with his new cutter? 

Here's some highlights of the cutter last year.

I'll be honest, after adding the cutter, it's hard not to like what he can bring to the mound and I'd definitely take him over Webb, Baumann, Baker or even Tate. Just depends on the deal but you have to imagine if the Dodgers or Rangers are after him the Orioles are not going to outbid them. 

 

 

[ChosenOne21]

He's not a guy I'd be confident outbidding five other teams for.

Then again, is anyone going to guarantee him a second year? He probably won't be that expensive regardless.

[NCRaven]

If we do outbid those teams, everyone here will bitch that we spent too much on him anyway.

[MTMan13]

He’s been a pretty meh reliever for most of his time in Boston and is looking to get paid for some of what he showed after the trade last year.

Maybe you try a deal that gives you a team option for 2025 in exchange for being the top bid, assuming no one gives him multiple years at his desired AAV.  

[RZNJ]

Maybe we should just teach Jacob Webb a cutter.  How do the Dodgers and Rays take these nondescript relievers and turn them into something?

[sportsfan8703]

I like this idea. Relievers are fickle in that they have to constantly be tinkering and adjusting to the league adjusting to them. We’d be paying for his LAD performance and not anything else in his career other than experience. Which is valuable. Kimbrel is going to try and replace Bautista. This dude would be the option to give us what we hoped Fuji could, and Webb eventually did. 
 

Another example of Elias working the margins and working within his budget.