That Wade Davis is likely to be named the Rockies’ closer in and of itself isn’t shocking. Davis is one of the most accomplished closers of this era, changing the game with an incomparable three-year run of dominance with the Royals from 2014 to 2016. Over that span, Davis appeared in 185 contests, posting a 1.18 ERA/1.86 FIP. He gave up just three home runs in that time, and along with running mates Greg Holland and Kelvin Herrera, showcased the potential for an uber-dominant bullpen to undergird a champion. Whether that unit was truly transcendent is a debate for another day, but they did, at the very least, help drive the transformation of bullpen usage that, in part, defines our current era of baseball.
And yet, Davis wasn’t the nominal closer on those Royals teams. Not until an injury to Holland forced him into the role. But he is, once again, the nominal closer for the Colorado Rockies despite the 8.65 ERA he posted in 50 games last season, per MLB.com’s Thomas Harding.
In the Rockies’ defense, putting Davis back into the closer role allows manager Bud Black to deploy Scott Oberg or Jairo Diaz in higher-leverage situations, though there are other ways to protect Davis, should that be the goal. Davis’ trajectory should be a fun one to track throughout the season, as it’s hard to imagine many more opportunities to watch a team roll it back after their closer posted an ERA over 8.00.
Also to consider, Davis is making a chunky $17MM this season. The Rockies could be free of their obligation to Davis with a $1MM buyout prior to 2021. Regardless, they’re gonna make every effort to put their investment to good use this season.
seems kind of weird in this day and age to name a closer especially this early in the spring
Nothing the Rockies does surprises me. Just confusing.
Especially since Wade Davis was hammered last year.
The entire year? Dang hope he’s got a solid liver.
Nice one
Ha
trade. it’s gonna be Yates cash and Myers for Bobby dalbec. still think the pads win that.
Cool
Why would the Padres want Dalbec?
I don’t think they’d want dalbec specifically but getting rid of Myers contract is the main victory for them here.
I think dalbec specifically. he’s ready to play now and they aren’t trying to finish third in the division. they also drop myers’ contract and they start letting the youth eat.
Why would they trade their closer then?
Without Yates that pen is garbage
That’s just not true. Pagan, Pomeranz, Stammen make up a very solid back end of the pen. Plus Munoz and Baez are really good young pieces to build around in the pen.
Who is Yates Cash?
A new B-level Country Star?
That’s great and all, but what does that have to do with this story?
I like turtles.
The Padres will not trade the best relief pitcher in the game at least until the trade deadline, and then only if they are not in playoff contention. I don’t see Casas as having the ability to play 2B at 6’4″ 225lbs. If he can’t, he has no value to the Padres.
Yea, Trading your closer for a 3rd base prospect when you signed a 3rd basemen the year before to a mega deal makes great sense. Padres’ best bet is to just eat the Myers contract. No need to harm the talent pool to get rid of it. He’s still a (slightly) above league average player.
not happening
I hope he bounces back, the past few years Colorado has had some seriously good years from underrated relievers (Oberg, and Ottavino before he was popular). But when anybody sees Colorado’s pen’ they can only think of that atrocious Davis contract. I like comeback stories, and that would be a nice one leading to Colorado’s 94 win season lol.
If he finishes 30 games that option becomes a player option for next year at 15M.
Yes, which makes this move even more puzzling.
Why promise to afford Davis any more GF than absolutely necessary until you know whether he’s still effective enough to either help a contender in a 7th or 8th-inning role or has a miraculous enough rebirth to warrant a $15MM salary in 2021?
Arenado can now rest assured the runs he put up will be given up by a professional.
Arenado, Davis, Shaw, and Desmond to the Yankees for Andujar, half of Stanton’s contract, and Severino.
Lose Arenado. Cut 40 million in dead money. Gain a young quality infield bat, a 80 dinger Colorado bat, and next year’s ace.
Done!
80 dingers? Really? Considering no Rockie has ever even hit 50, I think that might be an over estimate.
And that is possibly the most realistic part of your joke of a proposal.
Do you get paid for the dumbest ideas? You have to at this point. I can’t believe you are genuinely like this
Your mom gets paid for dumb ideas! Zing!
I don’t get much Rockies news…or any NL for that matter. What was Davis’ main problem last year? When he was in KC he had guys swinging at stuff in the dirt and off the plate all the time. Did everyone just get wise or did he lose some of his movement? Velocity issues?
He had a few bad games in July and then lost his confidence completely. He gave up runs in just about every single game he appeared in August & September. I’m not usually one to question the heart of someone I don’t personally know, but it just looked like he stopped trying altogether in August. Maybe it had to do with the Rox being out of it, who knows.
I don’t have a problem with him starting the year at closer. I would only have a problem if he remained closer for too long if it is clear his head is not in the game anymore.
Just the Rockies doing weird Rockies things again. Incredibly, they may be more of a laughing stock than the Mets right now.
Why because Arenado made it clear he wanted out and they weren’t able to swing a fair deal for him?
No, because they’ve been making horrendous decisions for a number of years ($70mil for Ian Desmond to play 1B anyone?), can’t develop enough talent to build even a semi respectable MLB roster, are so out of touch with reality that they genuinely believe they’re a piece or two away from competing, and have failed to even plot some kind of direction towards competitiveness for many years.
The Arenado situation is just a sidebar to the Rockies overall ineptitude.
Yeah that is why when people pile on the giants and say they’ll be last place in the division I don’t buy it. Even with the patchwork untested roster I still see the Rockies shooting themselves in the foot enough that it is hard to see them anything else but last in the division
Gonna?
I was coming to write this too. What the heck?
I dunno. But I hope it isn’t a trend.
There isn’t a commenter here who could write for this site. Makes me laugh to see them criticize and complain. When it doesn’t bore me, that is. I mean, who cares what the average commenter thinks about the writing and editorial decisions of this site, especially if it’s all perfectly understandable writing? The rule among commenters should be “talk baseball or don’t talk.” That’s when the comment boards are at their best.
Your first sentence is not an accurate statement. For one, I write professionally, so I feel I could in fact write for this or any other site. Based on the commentary here I suspect I am not the only one. That being said, I pointed this out because it was surprising to me, and it was surprising because the quality of writing on this site is as good as anywhere on the internet these days (a steadily declining standard, to be sure). To people who care about writing, this site is comparatively a pleasure to read, most days. This day was not one of them, and I hope not a sign that MLBTR is joining the race to bottom. And that’s all I have to say about it.
Me too. The writing in this article is all over the place. Look at that mouthful of a sentence to close the opening paragraph, it’s a mess.
“Me too” needs a comma and it’s an incomplete sentence. Your last sentence is a comma splice where you have tried to fuse two complete sentences with a comma. Perhaps you might fix your own writing before criticizing the authors on this site.
At least his participle isn’t dangling, because that would be embarrassing.
Nice. Nl west is going to feast
If he gets pummeled in March, he’s still the closer? Not likely. Why name it now.
All of his bad games were after June. baseball-reference.com/players/gl.fcgi?id=daviswa0…
Bud Black has built some very solid bullpens out of nothing. Let him work his magic, the Rockies will be fine.
Rox probably hoping Davis gets off to a good start in the closer’s role so they can ship him out of town in a trade. Many GMs will dismiss the aberration of a season he had in 2019 as just one of those things. Relief pitchers have more ups and downs than a Coney Island loop-de-loop.
No matter. Rox still gonna finish dead last in the NL West. Yes, I think even the Giants will win more games in 2020 than the Rox.
For whatever reason, and though they’ve certainly tried, they have never found the ideal type of pitcher who can succeed in the thin air of Denver. Surely there’s an answer somewhere. I don’t have it, but then again, I’m not being paid to figure that out.
Davis hasn’t even pitched this spring yet and he’s named closer? They have Scott Oberg who should be the closer.
So…how could Davis only have a -1.3 WAR? I’m honestly looking for an explanation of how that stat applies?