Right-hander Oliver Drake, whom the Brewers designated for assignment on Tuesday, has been traded to the Indians for cash considerations. The move was announced by Milwaukee via its Twitter account. The Indians have yet to announce a corresponding move.
On the surface, it’s not difficult to understand why the Brewers designated Drake for assignment; he sports an alarming 6.70 ERA on the season while walking a whopping 8 batters in just 12 2/3 innings on the young season. But while the walk rate is certainly a valid concern, the bloated ERA can be blamed in part on an absurd .400 batting average on balls in play against the righty. That’s been one contributing factor towards a 59.1% strand rate; league average usually sits around 70-72%, while Drake’s career average comes in just under that range at 67.7%. In short, he certainly has nobody to blame but himself for the runners he put on base via free passes, but he’s also suffered from some considerably poor fortune as far as those runners crossing the plate.
The positive signs offer some encouragement for Drake’s outlook with his new club. His 10.66 K/9 so far is a career-high mark, about a batter per nine above his career rate of 10.11. He’s also induced ground balls from 52.9% of opposing hitters this season, which sits just outside the top 25% of qualified relievers in MLB. And while Drake’s 6.70 ERA on the year is an eyesore, his 2.70 FIP is a much more palatable figure and suggests he’s likely to make some improvements in the run-prevention arena.
If he can just improve his control a bit, it’s certainly possible the Indians could end up with another surprise diamond in the rough, as they did last year with both Nick Goody and Tyler Olson. That would be a welcome sigh of relief for a club that’s feeling the pains of losing relief ace Andrew Miller to the DL; their bullpen sports an ERA north of nine in his absence and has shuffled through a small army of relievers in the past four days alone (as MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian recently noted). Regardless of whether Drake can perform at a high level, it’s a low-risk move for a club in desperate need of some stability in its relief corps.
We actually got something for this ?
$20 and 4 free passes to the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame.
You had me at $20
A $10 consideration is not necessarily something. It might only be a consideration.
I’m amazed they even considered it. that’s a big win
I believe the cash consideration consisted of the Indians considering whether or not they’d actually give them any cash to take him off their hands.
Sad to lose the depth for almost nothing, but he is pretty bad so I can live with it. Our bullpen has been doing amazing outside of him so he really wasn’t a necessity.
The Haterman is a stud
Oliver Drake, the favorite/least-favorite relief pitcher of Seinfeld fans… “Love the Drake!” “Hate the Drake!”
How dare they give that big screen tv to charity.
Never mind that. Just dee-liver.. it.. to.. her.
The fact that he remained on the roster as long as he did was surprising to me. I thought he was going to be done the offseason before he was out of options
The next two subtractions from the bullpen – as Boone Logan and Corey Knebel come off the DL – won’t be as obvious as cutting Oliver Drake loose was. Everybody’s pitching extremely well and the Brewers have some money tied up in one or two of them. Not sure they want 3 lefties in the pen.
Phillips and Suter are optioned to Triple-A. Problem solved.
Good points. But it would be more like 2 lefties since Hader can get them out from both sides. Williams also has options but has pitched very well too. Going to be tough.
I can see possibly Suter going down but if I’m the Brewers it might be time for Orf and Dubon time to get a chance maybe DFA Sogard and Perez or even send Arcia down to work on his swing. He’ll we might even be able to trade for Machado for just this year but probably not cause I think they would want Peralta and Corbin and they should be untouchable. Now relax it was just a thought unless you can use Domingo and Ortiz as the starting spot
You are dreaming more and more by the word
I could see Sogard getting dfa’d to bring up Orf. Sogard has had many opportunities and is not going to get significantly better at this point. Sogard lacks positional flexibility. Orf and Sogard are both lefties.
Perez is young enough to get more chances. As a righty with positional flexibility you can platoon his bat with any lefty that doesn play 1st or catcher.
Orale… When the Indians called and asked about Oliver they asked the price and I said two paydays and a whatchamacallit… they said I was crazy so they offered me two packs of now-n-laters and a lady taffy so I countered with some nachos and a mountain dew they said he’ll no but they said their final offer would be a butterfingers and a box of nerds and I said hey STOP calling our second baseman names then I thought about it and figured hey we already have Sogaurd so it’s kinda fits with our brewers so I pulled the trigger and agreed to the deal!!!! Jajajaja
Typical Cleveland move……they’ll finish 2nd in the Central to the Twins and that;s only because the rest of the division is so bad. It won’t be long until all the teams in this town are in the cellar…..Browns already there, Cavs will be next season after Lebron bolts to a better place and the Indians are already on their downward spiral.
Good luck with that. KC is going to be in the cellar for years to come. Tigers aren’t going to be competitive for a few years either.
They still let you post here?
Swenson, Swason, oh its Samsonite!!
Lol what can be blamed for his poor pitching this year? His inability to get outs when pitching against the opponent