Blue Jays closer Roberto Osuna has lost his arbitration case, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today Sports. The right-hander had filed for a $5.8MM payday in his first trip through the arbitration process, but he’ll instead take home the $5.3MM salary that Toronto filed for. That amount represents about a $4.75MM raise in his first arb year, and falls just $300K shy of the $5.6MM figure projected by MLBTR’s Matt Swartz.
Osuna has shown excellent command of the strike zone over the course of his three MLB seasons, evidenced by his phenomenal 6.15 career K/BB ratio (a figure that ranks third among qualifying relievers from 2015-2017). He’s posted a solid 2.86 ERA during that time, though ERA estimators such as FIP (2.69), xFIP (3.23) and SIERA (2.64) don’t quite agree on his true talent level. Regardless, Osuna is one of the top closers in the game of baseball, and he’ll be rewarded for it this season.
Fellow first-time arb-eligible closer Ken Giles will earn $4.6MM after winning his case. Giles has tossed 36 1/3 more big league innings than Osuna with better run prevention, strikeout and ground ball results. However, the arbitration process values saves heavily, and because Osuna has 95 career saves (30 more than Giles), he’ll out-earn his Houston counterpart by over half a million dollars this season.
Osuna was an international signing of the Blue Jays in 2011. He pitched his way onto the big league roster out of spring training camp in 2015 at the age of 20, and earned his first career save just two and a half months later. He’s been an anchor at the back of the Jays’ bullpen ever since. Barring an extension, he’s set to pitch three more seasons with the team prior to reaching free agency following the 2020 season.
Waaaayyy to many blown saves! Sorry osuna
He wasn’t any worse then anyone else. What are you talking about?
10 blown saves in 2017. For me that’s a lot.
Blown saves are as meaningless as saves
So your saying it wouldn’t have mattered he had gotten those 10 saves and the Blue Jays had won 10 more games?
Please explain the logic behind a blown save being meaningless.
I wouldn’t really worry about blown saves, but when they start reaching double digits, I’d take that into consideration.
Worth noting that 3 of those blown saves happened in a span of 5 games — 10 hits, 9 earned runs.
Also worth noting that 7 of Osuna’s blown saves resulted in losses. If he had held those, the Blue Jays would have been 2 wins out of the second wildcard spot.
you can still have win with a blown save…it doesn’t auomatically count that you lost a game with a blown save
Okay, they still lost 7 of his blown saves.
If wins and losses for a starting pitcher are meaningless in the analytic community, should saves and blown saves for relief pitchers be meaningless too? I’m not assuming anyone commenting is a member of the analytic community.
They are meaningless because you can pitch like complete crap and get a save or win. And a blown save could be coming in with the tying run in scoring position with zero out. Or if you’re up by three and give up two, you get a save, but didn’t pitch good. On the other hand you might be up 1 and only give up 1(it doesn’t even have to be the closers runner), and get a blown save. Saves and wins really don’t tell you if a pitcher is good or not.
It’s like all the guys who complain about a player having a ton of strikeouts , but in today’s game, an out is an out
I play Fantasy baseball so it means something to me. I don’t want to have a CL who is going to spike up my WHIP & ERA.
The save was the dumbest invention ever.
The biggest thing about Osuna’s 2017 that I find goes unmentioned is that he was ready to be shut down because of mental issues and ended up only missing 1-2 games. I thought he needed a longer break but aside from a really dreadful stretch, he really recovered quite well.
A pitcher with 10 BS can pitch great or terrible, but when you analyze the blown saves that Osuna suffered, most were on him.
Mariano Rivera blew 10 saves once. Maybe 9 but he recovered from a dreadful year is my point. Osuna still very young and ended the year solid enough that I have minimal worries about him going forward.
Apologies to Mariano Rivera and fans. His worst was 9 blown. It was Eckersley that blew 10. I was blurring my HOF caliber closers into one big memory. Elite relievers will blow saves. Main thing I’m getting at.
And ’cause nobody asked but ’cause someone might call me on it. By recovered quite well, I mean that Osuna learned a lot in 2017, didn’t stop fighting and seemed to gain a self confidence through it all if he’s as transparent as he seems in his interviews.
Started the year on the DL, came back and blew 3 in April. Should’ve rehabbed more in hindsight but 2 of those blown were decent performances and the third was a Jays win. Hard to hate. May and June were actually perfect.
Jun23 stands out for me. Grilli’s last game. Osuna announced anxiety as reason he was unavailable. But he pitched Jun25. Team needed him bad and I figure he had to find out if he could get over this sooner or later- I guess sooner. Survived another month with only 1 more blown. But end of July/early August added 3 more and he was starting to feel like a little bit of a cause, little bit of effect of the Jays lost season in my eyes. Without him, the team blows 20 saves, so criticize the 10 blown all you want, keep in mind, he was truckin’ through tough times because the team lacked alternatives.
Rest of August and most of September was pretty up and down but a save in NY and BOS to end the year was nice to see. Worries deep down, but attempting to read between lines of Osuna’s statements and performance gives me confidence that he’ll come back strong.
Go Jays.
Blowsuna
Hope this guy is more reliable Fantasy CL in 2018
Ok, he’s a closer and had a frustrating year when it came to saves. Only 79.6% (39/49).
But he had some great numbers: 0.859 WHIP, 6.5 H/9, 0.4 HR/9, 1.3 BB/9, 11.7K/9, Although 3.38 ERA (good nonetheless), he had 1.74 FIP (I don’t know if FIP is a good stat)
Maybe he lost because he asked too much?
FIP is much more reliable than ERA, especially in small sample sizes like relievers provide.
A 1.74 FIP is outstanding
No one has ever pointed out that despite all the injuries to key players that the Jays suffered through, including to the A.L.’s ERA champ from the year before (Aaron Sanchez) for the year, and the AL’s MVP of 2015 (Josh Donaldson), losing nearly the first half of the season, and the horrific start to the season, the irony is that if Osuna didnt blow those 11 saves and had a Zack Britton year, the Jays would have been right there for the wild card.
Thats why Jays management is going for it in 2018 because with just a few things not going as bad as they did last year, the Jays will be able to reward their 3.5 mil attendance by being in contention in September….
It shouldn’t be about “being in contention” it should be about winning it all. What’s the point of being in contention now and next year losing a bunch of your players for a comp pick. The worse thing to be is in between.
Don’t agree. There have been teams who are crowned champs in the offseason and come nowhere close. Other teams come from nowhere and make big runs. You play to win simple as that. Especially teams who have a large salary cap to work with. If at the deadline you’re way out then sure sell but I hate teams that give up before the season has even started.
Valid point bronxbombers but looking at history says getting into the playoffs can be the difference maker! Rare that the paper champs win it all.
Not only the difference in the games blown, but I can think of 2-3 times throughout the season where all confidence seemed lost after the bullpen/Osuna blew it. While Cleveland is going on 22 game winning streaks, the Jays were waiting for the double digit win streak that carried them into playoffs previous two seasons. Didn’t happen though. Too many holes to fix at once.
What was the jays record in those games he blew a save in ? Remember a blown save doesn’t always lead to a loss
They were 2-8.
Jays are getting a bargain compared to what FA relief arms, let alone closers, are going for.
Ten blown saves last year, sure, but six in 2016 and just three in 2015. And lets not forget the battle he had with anxiety halfway through the year. All things considered I like the kid’s outlook for 2018.
Glad to see someone mention his anxiety issues that crept up. Those get swept under the rug pretty quick by the Jays, but to me they were directly linked with his weakest stretch!
22 year old closers don’t just grow on trees
Wow! Not a single dumb comment about how the jays are cheap haggling over 300k? Remember when jays went to arb with Donaldson over 300k and the simpletons were up in arms lol.
who says no first?
TOR – Morales Pearce
LAD – Kemp Alvarez
Dodgers. Would love that for Toronto. At least you could free up the DH once in a while by putting Kemp in the outfield
Im hoping for this to happen in some fashion. I do think Pearce has value as in wouldn’t have to eat his salary in a follow up trade. 11m or so between Kemp and Morales should enable Dodgers to sign Darvish. And not having to watch Morales run anymore = awesomeness!
Players never lose an arbitration case because even when they lose it almost always results in a huge raise.