As new Diamondbacks GM Kevin Towers looks to remake his bullpen, he may choose to cut 29-year-old right-handed reliever Blaine Boyer loose. Towers will need to decide by the December 2nd non-tender deadline, as Boyer is arbitration eligible for the second time in his career after earning $725K in 2010.
Boyer tossed 57 innings out of Arizona's pen this year, with a 4.26 ERA, 4.6 K/9, 4.6 BB/9, and 0.5 HR/9. His 65.8% groundball rate stood out; that ranked third among all pitchers with at least 50 innings. He also throws hard, averaging a 94.6 mph fastball this year.
Boyer has moved around in his career since coming up with the Braves. The Braves traded him to the Cardinals in April of '09, and then the D'Backs claimed him off waivers two months later after he'd been designated for assignment. Former D'Backs GM Josh Byrnes designated Boyer again in May of this year, but he cleared waivers and was added back to the roster in June.
Boyer's control in 2010 had been horrible prior to his demotion, but an arm slot adjustment led to a 3.7 BB/9 after his recall. That's tolerable, but with so few strikeouts it's tough to make that formula work even with frequent groundballs.
We've shown you the good and the bad; now it's your turn to predict what Kevin Towers will do. Click here to make your prediction and here to view the poll results.
I thought the D’backs were in a hurt for pitching. If so, Boyer seems cheap enough and should do well provided he a has a good defense behind him. Non-tendering doens’t make sense to me.
“Non-tendering doens’t make sense to me.”
Boyer’s 1.54 WHIP disagrees with you.
If Pirates GM Neal Huntington gets a whiff of this guy being non-tendered, I have a feeling he’ll be all over Boyer. Huntington loves pitchers with a high groundball rate and control issues.
and that have 1.50+ WHIPS
(Sean Gallagher, Charlie Morton, Brendan Donnelly, Zach Duke, Daniel McCutchen, Paul Maholm, Brad Lincoln, Brian Burres for people with 30+ innings… and 10 other pitchers with less than 30 innings)
Boyer was the least of our ‘pen problems last year, and I can’t imagine him costing even $1MM. For a 4 FIP arm who is a decent candidate for beneficial regression in 2011, that seems decent enough.
The D-backs only have so many bullets to fire this off-season. Granted, Towers is gonna make like fifty trades to completely re-structure the team, but with only about $15MM or so to spend due to a reduced payroll, he can only do so much on the free agent market to fill the holes in either 1B or left field (with Allen possibly taking the other position), the back of the rotation, and the back of the ‘pen.
Tendered.
The back of the rotation isn’t that much of an issue. They do have some starting depth. Aside from Parker there’s Zach K, Mulvey, Holmberg, Skaggs, Miley and possibly Mike Hampton. The bullpen is the real issue.
Kroenke is AAAA, Mulvey is AAAA, Hampton is a reliever, Skaggs was in A-ball last year, and Holmberg spent ’10 in ROOKIE BALL. We are talking about 2011 here, not 2013-2015…
I disagree about Kroenke. Yes he sucked out of the bullpen but he looked pretty good in the game he started. If the team doesn’t sign/acquire a starter, he’ll probably compete with Parker and others for the fifth spot.
Wouldn’t a 4.26 ERA make Boyer the best reliever Arizona had out of their bullpen last year? lol
Statistically yes. But Carrasco produced a better ERA in his tenure and Gutierrez had a hell of a second half. He turned an ERA over 10 to around 5 and a half.
Is there a date by which players that are NOT arbitration eligible have to be either tendered a contract or released?
I’ve pretty much determined he will be nontendered. Towers publicly said he hates walks and will think Boyer gives away too many free passes.