The Braves have turned down right-handed reliever Darren O’Day’s $3.5MM club option for 2021 in favor of a $500K buyout, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports. O’Day is now the second notable reliever to have a team decline his option today, joining the Indians’ Brad Hand, who could earn $10MM in 2021 if another club acquires him.
While O’Day isn’t as noteworthy or expensive as Hand, it’s nonetheless surprising to see the Braves give him up. With the league coming off a pandemic-shortened season sans fans, though, these moves could be a sign of negative things to come for the players this winter. It seems relievers will face some economic adversity in free agency, but it’s possible the open market will prove to be disappointing for most or all players, regardless of position.
No matter how free agency does shake out across the league, O’Day currently looks like one of the most accomplished relievers on the open market. Despite averaging around 86 mph on his fastball throughout his career, O’Day has been highly effective with a handful of teams since he debuted in 2008. The longtime Oriole owns a 2.51 ERA/3.43 FIP with 9.36 K/9 and 2.47 BB/9 in 576 2/3 innings in the majors.
The Braves acquired O’Day from the O’s in the 2018 season, but his year had already ended on account of a hamstring issue. Anthony injury, this time to his forearm, kept O’Day out until September of last season, but he was able to end on a positive note with five strong innings. The Braves then re-signed O’Day to a guaranteed $2.5MM last winter, and he went on to deliver in 2020 with 16 1/3 innings of eight-hit, three-run ball, also notching 22 strikeouts against five walks. But that excellent performance was not enough to convince the Braves to keep O’Day around for what looked like a reasonable sum.
another option for the Phillies
It’s gonna be so easy to build a bullpen this offseason.
Not necessarily. Relievers are being outrighted for a reason. More than ever, teams are looking to cut salary due to the game’s cloudy financial picture. Veteran relievers out, rookie relievers in. You can pay three rookies considerably less than what you’d pay a guy like O’Day, even though he’s not a big-ticket item. Get ready for the year of the rookie reliever. In the just-completed 60-game season, 134 pitchers making their MLB debut tossed 12.2% of all the innings. Expect some combination of that group to pitch even more innings in 2021, with another group of first-timers accounting for more than 10% of the workload. It’s not reasonable to think that more than 30% of all 2021 innings will be pitched by guys who hadn’t sniffed MLB prior to the pandemic. Relievers tend to be up-and-down. If I’m going to make a mistake building my bullpen, let me do it with the cheaper guy. Especially entering g a season that is filled with pandemic-related question marks.
Agreed…one of the obvious places where you can but payroll is in the bullpen for exactly the reasons you pointed out.
You nailed it, Cey Hey. Not only will the middle to lower-middle tier guys get almost completely squeezed out because of the financial outlook, I imagine lots of the premier guys will be available for little more than salary relief. Paying ace pitchers or premium young position players more than your financial outlook projects to accommodate for one year isn’t life or death, since you still control an extremely rare commodity that will still be valued by most teams…but a veteran reliever, with a couple of seasons at over 15m per? Short term albatrosses. Trade market could get pretty whacky this winter.
No it isn’t Most teams don’t have money for it
Most teams probably do.
Man. I would’ve loved to have an O’Day type on the Phillies in 2020.
Well that seals it if they are too cheap to pick up O Day’s option then Ozuna won’t be back. Might as well trade Freeman now.
I think it’s a fair risk to take, hope we can resign him for less effectively adding that $500k to a lower salary
so we trade for him?…wait 2 seasons to finally see him pitch?…he pitched pretty dang good and we let him walk? Yep, that sounds about right smh!
The fact that they had to wait 2 years to see him pitch should tell you why they are not willing to bring him back.
I’m not happy about letting him go. But in this market you can likely sign him back for less. It’s a risk worth taking. He’s good, don’t get me wrong. But again, it’s all about the risk tolerance
Or anyone else.
This was a slight shock to me as Melancon and Greene are long shots to be signed. If this were normal times, I would expect the contract would have been picked up. Most of the relievers are unlikely big contracts. Will Smith certainly wouldn’t get his 3 year deal under these circumstances. I expect many relievers to change teams before the 2021 season begins.
I think what hurts O’Day is the 3 batter faced rule. Of all the new rules added this year I hope that one is done away with.
This was discussed in another comment section, but the 3-batter rule hurt a lot of relievers this year.
The three hitter rule did not hurt O’Day this year. His ERA this season was the best of his career. I mean seriously .. a 1.10 ERA is phenomenal. Stop trying to make stuff up to fight a rule you dislike. If a pitcher can’t face three batters they shouldn’t be in the majors. Besides, he actually had reverse splits this year for the first time ever .. so he might have actually been helped by the three hitter rule.
As for the Braves, This is somewhat shocking. I defend AA on here over and over against harsh criticism, but this one might be tough. I can only assume they think their pen is so strong that O’Days workload could be given to a pre-arb player so that they can save $3 million to use elsewhere. Maybe they will try to send Riley and a couple of young arms to the Rockies for Arenado. Who knows. The free agent market is just not that good, and they will not get a vet pitcher of O’day’s ability for less than the $3 million they are saving.
Typical Braves “ well we were close this year we can now go back to stringing along our fans.”
I doubt that, there will be a ton of relievers on the market and I doubt any of them get the cash or years they want. Covid resets the market and then owners will see to that.
is that what you think they did last offseason?
No, most free agents were signed before Covid hit. This is the first off season with uncertainty. The really big free agents will gets theirs and then lots of one year deal at cut rate will follow.
@key. I THINK darkside was replying to Yep.
This isnt a Braves thing. Most teams will be reacting like this. We will all get to watch our teams behave in ways that are unreasonable if this was any other season.
It will be interesting to see what the Yankees do with their bullpen. They’re normally a deep pocket team that usually spends on their bullpen talent. However, they have many other needs that will all cost more than a nickel.
Come to Toronto!!
I think Anthony Injury spends way too much time hanging around the Yankees.
Gotta get rid of that dude.
Hand, O’Day, & Romo – whom were all set free today – would essentially rebuild/build/shore up anyone’s bullpen.
This move seems ridiculously stupid to me. O’Day is a solid RP on a reasonable contract, and they’ve already got Melancon and Greene hitting the open market. They might be thinking maybe they can bring him back at half the cost, but by the time you factor in the buyout is it worth the gamble to save a million dollars or so? This move is needlessly foolish for a contending team.
He seemed to fade a bit in the playoffs and they seemed to not trust that he could go back to back days very much.
He pitched 2.1 innings spread over FIVE appearances in the playoffs which four of them he wasn’t scored on. Poor performance had nothing to do with it.
Yeah they found ways to bring him into specialty spots in these playoffs a lot. Didn’t think he looked bad at all. Never gonna blow you away with stuff but hey, that’s not his job. Still a solid reliever.
He is.
I remember him with the Orioles. Several good relief options hitting the market today.
The Yanks could certainly use any of them (Wellll… maybe not Ozuna) as middle relief has developed some trust issues.
The three batter rule hurts these specialists but will not be implemented next year unless the union goes along which I doubt. I think the relievers who will be in demand are the hard throwers who can get strikeouts. O’Day doesn’t fit.
Major League owners are gun shy re: cash flow. Look for a very high percentage of players to have their options not picked up. COVID is very much up ticking, and so there is a a fear by management that the cash flow won’t be there.
I just mentioned that up top. Veteran relievers out, rookies at league minimum in. The Daren O’Days and Pedro Baezes are going to have a difficult time finding work, even though they aren’t big-ticket items. Three kids making league minimum will make considerably less than either of those guys. Look at all the veteran relievers who have already been outrighted. Fans who think their team will revamp the bullpen via free agency are in for a rude awakening. The minor league season might not happen and these kids are already in-house and need to pitch somewhere.
Ridiculous letting him go, anyone who says he “needs to be a right handed pitcher specialist” hasn’t looked at his career splits. The guy is elite vs Right Handed Hitters yes, but he’s very good against Left Handed Hitters like most really good relievers are.
This seems like a cost cutting measure rather than any real justification to do with his role. His option wasn’t expensive and he’s been rather great to elite reliever since 2012 who doesn’t throw hard and gets lots of strikeouts.
They see that there will be a ton of relievers on the market, and $3M is above market for 2021. Why spend $2M that you don’t have to?
That said, I wish they’d have reupped him.
In 2020; we witnessed the most major league debuts than I can remember. Expect more of the same as teams slice payrolls. The average player in need of a job might end up at home or take take extremely small deals and many will sign minor league deals. I would expect more major league free agents to sign minor league deals than ever before.
Key1, I posted that elsewhere. In the brief 60-game season, there were 212 debuting players including 132 pitchers who accounted for 12.2% of all innings pitched. We can probably expect something similar with MLB debuts in 2021 along with an increased workload from the class of 2020. The last thing teams will be thinking of is handing out millions of dollars to veteran relievers. They’ll go with league-minimum kids and let them get three or four outs before moving onto the next pitcher. What we saw in the playoffs with pitcher usage won’t be an exception. Every manager will turn into Jayce Tingler. How these pitchers hold up over a longer season remains to be seen. Older fans (a group that includes me) will be shellshocked. Hardly anyone will pitch enough innings to qualify for the ERA title. Just 39 pitchers tossed the required 60 innings in 2020. That’s 1.3 per team, which isn’t far from how it has been trending in recent 162-game seasons.
Amazing how many wins with so few losses he has vultured! A 40-19 record, 678 win % as a reliever!!??
I know it means nothing in today’s world but it still interesting to me…..
could also mean he gave up alot of leads.
The new economic reality.
This off-season is going to
be fascinating…..
Gonna make this summer’s rift between players and owners look like a lovefest.
Seeing the Braves will unload some more minor players on the roster to save money it seems silly letting O’day go. He pitched very well and in today’s world he isn’t making outrageous money.
I doubt Inciarte and Duvall are both around in 2021, Pache is here and Walters is close.
Flowers could be gone and if no DH I doubt Ozuna stays around.
Seems silly to fret about O’day who did his job. Who knows what management will do ! Kluber anyone ?
Covid and the fact pro sports has alienated many fans is a issue.
I don’t think pro sports leagues have alienated anyone. When sports shut down after the pandemic hit, a lot of people found out they were okay without it. We have too many sports on TV as it is. Overkill and a waste of time. And if by alienation you mean being ticked off that they’re speaking out regarding social justice, that’s more of a defect in the ticked-off people than sports. Bravo to sports for doing the right thing. What kind of person would be against justice, equality, and fair treatment of all Americans? I think we both know the answer to that one. Gonna be a rough week for those folks.
Pro sports has definitely alienated some fans. Probably not the ones on the message boards but their money still spends. Baseball definitely handled things better than other sports.
The Braves aren’t letting go of Duvall, in fact his absence was the main reason the Braves didn’t advance to the WS. The Duvall injury changed the bottom half of the lineup. He is still cheap.Inciarte would have long been gone, but the Braves haven’t been willing to eat his salary for the last two years and that’s the only way he will leave. The only way he leaves the team is if he is cut.
Where is Eppler when you need him??! Hand and O’Day are his dream come true pickups.
I hope the braves can sign him back he did a great job and could get leftys out
End your career, where it started. Come back to the Angels.
It is Really going to suck being a free agent this winter.
I hope the Braves will pick him up for 1.5 or 2, he pitched well this year, and you can’t have enough pitchers if you want to win it all.
1.10 ERA. 2.76 FIP. Surprised they let him go.
https://ballnine.com/2020/10/28/who-gets-to-pull-the-nerds/
This is absolutely ridiculous