The Nationals are nearing a deal with veteran reliever Brad Boxberger, according to Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post (via Twitter). It’s said to be a minor-league arrangement.
Boxberger was released recently by the Royals, who’ll remain obligated for the remainder of his $2.2MM salary. Should the righty make it up to the majors in D.C., his new organization would pay him at the league-minimum rate, providing a bit of relief to the Kansas City club.
If it feels as if the relief-needy Nats are scooping up all the veteran relievers that have been cut loose by other teams … well, that’s not far from the truth. Fernando Rodney, Jonny Venters, and Javy Guerra all opened the season with other clubs before landing with the Nationals on minors deals and then filtering up to the big leagues. (The club also nabbed outfielder Gerardo Parra under similar circumstances.) Dan Jennings and George Kontos also opened the year elsewhere before joining the D.C. org, though both are at Triple-A at present.
This approach surely wasn’t the plan going in, but it proved necessary as the Nationals relief unit turned in calamitous results over the first few months of the season. It still doesn’t look like an inspiring assemblage of pitchers, but the D.C. pen has been a passable group more recently, allowing (though not exactly driving) a fantastic run in the standings that now has the organization set up for more substantial additions over the next three weeks.
Even as the Nats’ front office begins pursuing trade targets in earnest, they’ll seemingly continue building out the depth options. Boxberger certainly fits the same general mold as the numerous other pitchers who’ve been brought on board. A long-established MLB hurler, the 31-year-old merited a guaranteed contract after a tepid but still-useful 2018 season but then failed to hit his stride in the early going this year.
It’ll be interesting to see whether the new organization can get Boxberger back on track. Trouble is, he’s working with significantly less velocity than ever before; he’s down to 90.5 mph with his average heater this year after sitting just under 93 for his career. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, Boxberger is going to offspeed offerings more than ever before, serving up his change on about one in three pitches and his slider on one of every five deliveries.
The results just haven’t been there, and neither have the peripherals. Boxberger is sitting on a 5.40 ERA over 26 2/3 innings, with 9.1 K/9 and 5.7 BB/9. On the positive side, his 11.3% swinging-strike rate isn’t far from his career average. And Statcast readings indicate that Boxberger has been a bit unfortunate. Opposing hitters have managed only 85.3 mph in average exit velocity. Boxberger is carrying a .311 xwOBA-against that lags the .329 wOBA that opposing hitters have produced.
“Wanted: relief pitchers. Experience preferred but will train the right candidate.”
Pretty much
It’s not a coincidence that you can buy used tires in the dc area!
“Mr. Fingers (Rollie) , Mr. Rizzo (Mike) is on the line”…..
Excellent strategy by Rizzo and the Nats. Dave Dombrowski should be taking notes for Boston. Sometimes a simple change in scenery is all it takes for relief pitchers to get their groove back.
Boston’s relative inaction in regard to their bullpen is certainly puzzling
Spoken like the Saint that you are, Dorothy.
Case in point: Swarzak. Acquired this season by Atlanta from Seattle in exchange for what amounted to be less than nothing. Seattle even took on an expiring contract for an injured pitcher for the season just to make sure the Braves didn’t have to add a cent to their payroll. Swarzak has only been brought in during high leverage runner on base situations against the heart of the order for opposing teams. He has made at least 16 appearances and has allowed only 1 run since the trade. Not one earned run. 1 run total. His ERA since the trade is below 0.70. The Braves had one of the worst bullpens in the league when they acquired him and now they have one of the best three bullpens in the league. He has not only dominated but he routinely clears the bases against the tough hitters which made the entire bullpen better. The funny thing is that Seattle fans were so happy when they got rid of him. The player they traded him for (Jesse Biddle) would not stop walking guys and posted an ERA over 9.00 before Seattle decided he was too terrible to be worthy of a roster space and basically released him. They still have Vizciano though. They get to pay him a few million dollars this year to sit on their 60-day IL until he becomes a free agent and leaves the team.
From what I’ve picked up from the ST beat writer this year, it sounds like Dipoto was doing guys like Swarzak and Jay Bruce a favor. From day one, everyone knew they were getting dumped to the Mariners.. If they were good citizens, he would try to trade them out to good situations rather than demand absolute maximum value on trades. Dipoto was a major league player, so I think there’s something to this.
Just my opinion, but I suspect the thing about Mariners fans on the blogs is that the M’s have been so awful for so long, they may not know how or what to root for. It seems some/many are happy as long as the team comes out ahead in advanced metrics and WAR per contract dollar, rather than wins or losses.
People dont like dipoto because he cant draft.
If a player is released with multiple guaranteed years remaining on his contract does the team that claimed him get to keep him at a league minimum salary for all of the remaining years of the contract or does that player become a free agent at years end? And is it always a minor league contract even if said player was signed to a guaranteed Major League contract by his previous team? It seems at least slightly unfair if the team that is paying the lions share of a players contract is unable to send him to the minors but a team that is paying the minimum is allowed to send the player back and forth from the minors virtually as much as they want. It also seems a little unfair to the player if he signed a major league contract but is now forced to take minor league assignments for years. Even if it’s not for years it still seems a little unfair to both the original signing team and the player himself. If anyone can clear any of these questions up for me I would love to know.
If a player gets claimed they pick up the contract. If a player gets DFA’d and is able to elect free agency then a team can sign them for the league minimum.
Boxberger didn’t have multiple guaranteed years, just to be clear.
But if he did … it would depend what deal he signed with DC. Can be a minors deal or a majors deal; what a player can command depends upon market interest.
Players such as Jose Reyes and Pablo Sandoval have signed MLB contracts that came with league-minimum club options (which were exercised in each case). Basically, the deal was: “we’ll give you a shot but we get upside down the line if you make good on your second chance.”
It’d also be possible for a guy to sign only for the remainder of the season, then return to free agency, then sign another league minimum deal with a different team.
Regardless, the team that owed the money in the first place is required to pay it, less only whatever other earnings a player makes to offset. There’s no incentive for a team to offer more than the league minimum, so they compete based upon opportunity (including whether the deal comes with a 40-man spot), familiarity, etc. rather than by cash.
As for the notion of sending a player down to the minors at will … none of this impacts the rules on optional assignments. So there’s no difference there. Most of the guys playing on contracts of this magnitude have already burned through their options or have enough service that they can decline an assignment and elect free agency.
That also speaks to the idea that it’d be unfair to the player. That just … isn’t how it happens. Contract details are all subject to negotiation. No player is signing on for a multi-year minor-league deal that allows the signing team to keep him down indefinitely. Neither would the new team care to do that; if the player is good enough and there’s enough need in the majors, they want these guys up. Doesn’t cost anything since it’s a league-minimum salary that is just the same as they’d pay to any other random pitcher. Nobody needs to stash an old relief pitcher for multiple years.
Do the Nationals sign every released veteran reliever? lol
I hear Heath Bell and Latroy Hawkins are looking for a home.
If you are a Nats fan? Noooooooo!!!
Oh wow. So Pablo Sandoval signed a brand new contract with SF after he left Boston? I never heard of big name players signing contracts with club options at the league minimum. I guess it makes sense in this case sense the player is unlikely to play well enough to earn a contact worth more than the amount left on his previous deal. Surely there must have been some team out there willing to give Sandoval a 1 year minimum deal without the club options though, right? Wouldn’t a player much prefer to sign a contract like that on the off chance they play well enough for another team to be willing to eat the remainder off his contract and maybe even pay him a little more? Not that it’s very likely to ever occur but it seems there is more upside to a one year deal without club options and zero downside.
Boston let him go because he ate everything in the clubhouse.
Even some players? So he’s a cannibal.
Um, Well good luck Nats…..
All teams are active on the waiver wire but, the Nat’s are one of the few success stories from it.
Frankly, I don’t know how Mike Rizzo keeps his job. Nats have had the talent to dominate the NL East and win an NL pennant. Yet, year after year, they come up short. Harper walked and Rendon might do the same unless Rizzo ponies up the cheese. And how many different managers has he gone through? Guy must be a b*tch to get along with.
And isn’t this the time of year when Strasburg usually hits the DL for a few weeks? Best way to describe the Nats is the word, “dysfunctional”.
You should know what you’re talking about before you post. The Lerner’s dont believe in paying for a manager. Nothing to do with Rizzo.