The Phillies have claimed righty Dan Otero off waivers from the Athletics, Philadelphia announced. He represents the club’s first 40-man acquisition under new GM Matt Klentak.
Otero, a 30-year-old reliever, had been a highly-productive contributor in Oakland over the 2013-14 campaigns. The control artist put up a cumulative 2.01 ERA in 125 2/3 innings in that span, with 5.2 K/9 against 1.5 BB/9. He was used particularly heavily in ’14, when he made 72 appearances and logged 86 2/3 frames.
Though he maintained that K:BB ratio in 2015, however, Otero was torched for 35 earned runs in 46 2/3 innings. There was some poor luck in the BABIP (.354) and strand rate (59.5%) arenas, but the righty also saw his groundball rate drop to below 50% while allowing a 14.9% HR/FB rate.
Philly apparently saw an opportunity to grab a potentially useful pen piece at a minimal commitment, and took advantage of their prime waiver position to do so. Because he spent time working at Triple-A last year, where he was rather effective, Otero missed a chance to qualify for arbitration as a Super Two.
There is a rebound candidate to setup Giles if there ever was one.
He was absolutely dreadful this year, A’s brass isn’t kidding around when they said they planned on turning over the bullpen this offseason. Doolittle is the only guy I’d expect to see back in 2016, everyone else is iffy at best.
Looks good, why not? We need bullpen help.
Happy to see this guy leave.
Many A’s fans would love to help him pack his bags, as he was a HUGE part of the problem.