The Rays have inked right-hander Michael Kohn to a one-year, major league contract, the club announced today. With the move, Tampa’s 40-man roster is now full for the time being.
Kohn, 28, elected free agency after being designated for assignment and outrighted in early September by the Angels. That move was confusing on the surface, as Kohn owns a 3.52 ERA across 76 2/3 frames since the start of 2013 and strikes out batters at a handy 9.2 per-nine clip.
But those numbers are not quite supported by Kohn’s peripherals; ERA estimators suggest that he may have benefited from a low home run-to-flyball rate and a .192 BABIP-against. At root, the concern with Kohn was his badly-slipping control. He ended up issuing 7.6 free passes per nine last year, including a troubling ten over his last 5 1/3 frames. Neither was the problem contained to his MLB time: Kohn walked 27 in his 34 Triple-A innings.
Been hoping the Rays would go after Kohn for a while. He’s a similar, though definitely lesser, player profile to Fernando Rodney: great stuff which results in high strikeouts, but lousy control which leads to a great many walks. Hopefully they can work similar magic on this one.
Smart move by the Rays. Was very disappointed when the Angels gave up on him.
Didn’t he opt for free agency when they DFA’d him?
Grilli, Thatcher, Dane De La Rosa are free agents. Kohn lost to free agency. Rasmus may be going to the rotation. Angels are losing a lot of bullpen depth.
No they’re not. Three of the four you just mentioned were expendable assets that were not going to contribute, and Grilli at 38 probably hits the age wall next season. Bullpen depth chart is Street, Smith, Jepsen, Morin, Salas, Pestano, Santiago or Rasmus, with any minor leaguer to choose from Jairo Diaz, Yoslan Herrera, and Wade LeBlanc. Every pitcher I mentioned btw had good numbers for their sample sizes. The only pitcher you mentioned that I would bring back without much thought is Thatcher because he’s still a decent age and got a raw deal with his sprained ankle not allowing him a more accurate sample size to read from. I think they’ll add a reliever or 2 for cheap any way. So the depth in their bullpen will be there again. And the most important part is a full season of Huston Street.
Good move. In 2015, you will see the Wrath of Kohn.
Good pickup for the Rays. I hoped the Angels would give him another season to control the walks. He was just beginning to throw his off speed stuff for strikes. He has potential because he doesn’t give up hits. Just too many walks. You’ll see it in his WHIP. The walks finally caught up to him in his last couple of outings with the big club and his ERA jumped from under 2.00 to over 3.00. If he can continue throwing his off speed for strikes he can be a dominant reliever. I like his delivery as well. Hopefully he’ll find it with TB.