The Angels have agreed to a deal with lefty Dan Jennings, according to reports. It’s a minor-league deal with a camp invitation. Jennings would earn $1MM in the majors, with up to $500K in incentives, per Maria Torres of the Los Angeles Times (via Twitter).
Jennings was non-tendered by the Brewers at the outset of the winter. He had projected to earn a $1.6MM salary but was instead kicked back to the open market. Now, he’ll have to earn his way into the Halos’ relief unit.
The 31-year-old southpaw, who’s just one MLB service day shy of reaching his sixth full season, has produced nothing but good outcomes in the majors. Through 344 career innings, he carries a 2.96 ERA with 7.1 K/9 and 3.9 BB/9. It was more of the same last year, as he provided the Brewers with 64 1/3 frames of 3.22 ERA ball.
Clearly, teams aren’t buying into the results. ERA estimators don’t either. Over his career, Jennings carries a 3.83 FIP, 4.05 xFIP, and 4.00 SIERA. He does get a lot of groundballs, with a 55.4% career rate, but otherwise stands out mostly for allowing opposing hitters to put the ball over the fence just 0.63 times per nine innings over the course of his seven seasons.
Whether that home run suppression is sustainable is probably the key question with regard to Jennings. He has seen his HR/FB rate jump in the last two years (21.1% and 13.3%) after sitting in single digits for every prior season, though he gets so many grounders that there still aren’t too many balls leaving the yard. It’s notable, too, that he has induced infield flies at better than the league average rate over the past four seasons, which perhaps also helps explain why he has found so much success despite ho-hum K/BB numbers.
In any event, this seems to be a no-brainer of a low-risk move for the Angels, who possess little in the way of lefty relievers. As things stand, the 40-man features Williams Jerez, Dillon Peters, and Jose Suarez as possible options, though the latter two seem likelier to serve as rotation depth. It certainly seems that Jennings will have the inside track on a big-league job.
What’s up with this guy? He is always good
Peripherals are mediocre
Depends what you are looking at. .6 HRs per nine. That’s excellent. Whip Stinks. Control poor. Slugging against LH batters, great. Slugging against RH batters good. Batting average against, average.
Batters don’t seem to square up against him and that’s important. But he’s also not a control specialist. I imagine he’s a ground-ball pitcher. All-in-all, he’s not a bad LH pitcher out of the pen.
i like this.
Finally a lefty for the pen.
I couldn’t agree more. LH don’t hit him very well, and he can get RH hitters out.
He seems like a nice pickup and he knows he’ll make this team.
Why was he non tendered
4 FIP last year
He’s never had a 4 ERA. It’s hard to say he’s a 4 ERA pitcher. I’ve never been a big fan of FIP. It has uses, I’m just not a fan.
FIP should mainly be used in regards to starters. It is pretty flawed when it comes to relievers.
Nice. We need a lefty in the pen.
i’ve been “praying” for one.
A lefty that doesn’t get lefties out
Jennings has a career 2.96 ERA and .665 OPS vs. LHH, so….
Slash line against lefties last year was .226/.266/.304
His splits stats disagree with me, but there were a few times he was brought in to get 1 critical out and failed. So maybe it’s a “big situation” thing
The best way to say it. He’d be called to face a big out LH hitter and more often than not he’d fail. Not deceptive enough but with decent stuff and bad location.
You’re opinion is not supported by the data. The problem with relief pitchers is fans think they should be perfect. I’ve been an Angel fan a long time and it doesn’t matter if it is LaRoche or Percy or K-Rod or Shields or Harvey or the White Rat coming out of the pen, as soon as they fail once, fans think the team can do better.
Actually I saw him with the Rays a lot. He leaves the ball up too often and he’s no Chapman. Don’t believe me…..watch.
I get what you’re saying, there’s a reason he’s available and for a minor league deal. But, the surface numbers vs. LHH look better than what we had yesterday, so we’re happy.
even i’m happier than i was yesterday.
I have to be honest with you, I don’t know this guy from Adam. But the data suggest he keeps the ball in the park and is effective against LH batters. He also seems adequate against RH batters, which is something the Angels didn’t have last year.
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That is sad but true Mac. One of the first games I think of when I think of Mariano Rivera was the bottom of the 9th against the Diamondbacks in the 7th game of the World Series. Every other high leverage situation is all blurred together. But, that one pitch will never leave my mind. Damn that Luis Gonzalez…
Without watching the games now, only looking at stats, I’d tend to agree that he had a hard time getting the tough out last year. He had 20 appearances where we got only one out or less (which typically represents this type of appearance) he got 16 outs, gave up 13 hits, walked three guys, and gave up 4 runs. That is good (or bad) for a 7.72 era, 3.42 whip. I think it is fair to say that he is not a lefty specialist (easy to tell from just basic splits), but this goes to prove the above point that he didn’t get it done in big spots. With that said, it’s not a bad pick up on a minor league deal for a team in need of bullpen help. Just because he isn’t a lefty specialist doesn’t mean he can’t get guys out.
Thanks for this! Very interesting
I’m happy for the lefty and the experience in the bullpen. Less so for the 6 dingers in 64 innings last season.
Six dingers in 64 innings in this day and age is pretty good. .6 per nine over his career is very good.
Kimbrell is .6 1 last year. Edwin Diaz .6 last year. .9 over his career. Andrew Miller is .8 over his career.
So I’d have to say I disagree with you. He keeps the ball in the park.
Good info. Thanks!
Now he’s going to a park that’s not a home run park. And since he induced a lot of ground balls, Simmons, Cozart and Fletcher will make him so much better.
Way to go Eppler.
how much garbage can the Angels collect this season. WHAT A COMPLETE S**T SHOW !!!!!
oo!oo
If the Yankees signed him, every one here would say it was a genius move.
That’s because by sheer population numbers, the majority here are east-coasters. So when most responses to their posts are in agreement, they’re quick to buy in to their own sputum.
I doubt it. The Yankees bullpen is one of the best of all time. The Angels needed a LH pitcher. For the Angels this is a good move. For the Yankees, it’s a “what are you doing?’ move.
Tell us how you REALLY feel? Lmao
In all honesty, I think I understand Eppler’s plans. He is maintaining a greatly improving farm system with some great top tier prospects and they are maintaining flexibility financially with one year deals. He IS building a young team that will soon rise around Trout and they will have the funds to retain him.
Eppler should trade Trout, he sure is hell isnt going to put a team around him.
oo!oo oo!oo
steartnbuck.
You don’t seem to be very intelligent. I’m not sure anyone cares what you think. But if they do, that’s on them.
Stewartnbuck: That’s such a tired narrative. You need to retire it and find something else to try to stir the pot with.
Boo!!!
Yay Rev!
4/BB/9 is hardly stellar
it’s a minor league contract with invitation. zee!
That’s true. But .6 HRs allowed per nine is stellar. His slugging pct against LH batters is stellar, and his ERA is very good.
I’m not comparing him to Kimbrel, but if you judge Kimbrel based on his 4.5 BB per nine last year I’d call you a fool.
At the very least, he’s better than some of the bullpen options that the Angels had last year… which isn’t saying all the much but I’ll take it
Solid pickup halos!
He was the guy who started a bullpen game against the Cardinals.
He’s had a little issue with Long Balls the last couple years and was terrible against righthanded bats last year and had a horrid 2nd half.
Maybe they see him more as a loogy than an One inning guy out of the pen.
Some of that is true, but. His HR rate last year was .8. The NL average was 1.1. His lifetime average is .6
As far as the other, it’s hard for me to care about how well he did in a small window of ABs. I don’t pay too much attention to one year, not the sensational season he had against LH or the pathetic season he had against RH. Two years ago he was much much better against RH hitters.
Lifetime. LF slug 342 against him, RH slug 397.
One MLB service day shy of having 6 full seasons, what are the rules on this? If a player has 5.99 seasons of service time, would they have to play out another year of arbitration before becoming a free agent?
By earn you mean just don’t get hurt and maintain a pulse
Solid move here ! Plus with our A+ defence he should only be better
A ground ball pitcher with our defensive infield can’t miss.
Yup. Not much gets past Simmons. Not sure about Fletcher at 2B, Cozart is solid at 3B. Havn’t seen Bour play. I’ve read good reviews.
Some guys just pass the eye test and you know he’s a player. Dan Jennings is one of them.