The Padres have granted right-hander Casey Janssen his release, as per the club’s official Twitter feed. The Nationals bought out their end of Janssen’s $7MM mutual option for 2016 following the season, and the veteran reliever signed a minor league deal with San Diego last month.
Janssen, 34, posted a 4.95 ERA, 6.1 K/9 and 3.38 K/BB rate over 40 innings out of Washington’s bullpen last season. ERA indicators (4.08 FIP, 4.60 xFIP, 4.19 SIERA) were a bit more favorable as Janssen had a very low 62.5% strand rate, though his 29.4% grounder rate was far below his 45.8% career mark. While Janssen has never been a power pitcher, his average fastball velocity dropped for the fourth consecutive year (down to 88.5 mph in 2015). After averaging 8.7 K/9 with Toronto from 2010-13, Janssen has managed just 5.8 K/9 over the last two seasons.
Last year my Sox would have probably had room for a solid guy like Janssen but now that we have a stacked BP there is just no room for him. I wish you well in free agency Mr Janssen!
Good morning Bigpapi, glad to see your day has started. How are Your Sox today?
As a fellow Red Sox fan , the BP is hardly stacked. I know you are just an extreme fan boy trying to get a rise out of people at this point and it’s working obviously.
Are you even real?
Last year not even Jesus Christ himself coulda helped the Red Sox. They are two serious injuries away from finishing up this year where they where last year.
And my Sox are just a bit of positive regression away from heading back to the World Series again, we’ll see!
Isn’t positive regression really progression?
Blew your mind eh?
bigpapi4ever blows every bodies mind LOL
He could be a nice low-risk pick-up to serve as MiL depth for an injury.
So Janssen is now gone, and Maurer is now back in the bullpen. Things are starting in shape up. Rodney will close, Quackenbush will probably set up, and maybe they’ll move Pomeranz back to the bullpen as well.
Villanueva is probably a lock for the long man/swing man role out of the pen and Matt Thornton is the Left handed specialist late in games. So that locks up 7/8 bullpen spots. Vincent, the rule 5 guys and the guys that don’t get the 4-5 starter spots will all compete for that final bullpen slot.
I think the Phillies will be better than you think. and Darin Ruf , if given a decent chance will open a lot of eyes. He has been buried behind Howard despite Howard’s less than impressive numbers the past two seasons. They have some young pitching including Nola, Morgan Velasquez and Eickhoff and Thompson is ready to push for a roster spot from
triple A. They are looking much better in Spring Training this time around
I’d much rather have the Padres try Pomeranz in the rotation until he proves he can’t do it. San Diego isn’t going anywhere this year, so why not?