10:07am: Hernandez would earn $1.5MM if he makes the MLB roster, Andrew Baggarly of the Mercury News reports on Twitter. He has already passed his physical.
9:18am: The Giants have agreed to a minor-league deal with righty David Hernandez, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (via Twitter). Other terms of the agreement remain unreported at this time.
Hernandez, 31, landed a $3.9MM deal last year with the Phillies, but he’ll need to earn a major league job in camp this time around. He ended up posting an up-and-down season, but did show that he was fully recovered from Tommy John surgery and capable of providing innings.
Over 72 2/3 frames in 2016, Hernandez worked to a 3.84 ERA with a healthy 9.9 K/9 to go with a sub-optimal 4.0 BB/9 walk rate. While he continued to generate few grounders (37.3% groundball rate) and allow a few too many home runs (1.36 HR/9 and 14.3% HR/FB), he also showed typically strong velocity (94.0 mph average four-seam fastball) and swinging-strike numbers (11.7% SwStr).
While that effort largely fell in line with Hernandez’s overall career numbers, perhaps there’s still some upside left in his right arm. He logged a 2.50 ERA with 12.9 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9 over 68 1/3 innings back in 2012, and still has much the same arsenal that he did then.
For San Francisco, the move puts another experienced late-inning arm in camp at a minimal commitment. Hernandez will likely compete with pitchers such as George Kontos, Cory Gearrin, and fellow minor-league signee Bryan Morris for a slot in the Giants’ relief corps.
Surprised he couldn’t find a deal anywhere else
Originally from sac. I like this. Check for updated rosters on MLB the show daily!
Good pitcher. Excellent signinh
Nothing wrong with that. Fingers crossed that this pushes Gearrin further down the chart in the pen.
Good pickup
Kontos will make the team.
Hernandez has a good shot to making the roster.
I am extremely surprised and happy that (a) we have signed him and (b) its a minor league deal
Wasn’t he supposed to be PHI’s opening day closer, eventually losing the job, because he got tagged early.
With Melancon, Law and others I think he may come up with better numbers at AT