Brad Keller posted a 2.47 ERA, 2.06 K/BB rate, 5.76 K/9, and 52.8% grounder rate over 54 2/3 innings this season, as the 25-year-old continues to establish himself as a front-of-the-rotation option for the Royals. Keller was aided this season by an improved slider that essentially looked more like his fastball and moved like a curveball, as the right-hander told Fangraphs’ David Laurila. The first step was remaking a slider delivery that initially left Keller unable to “see the plate because my front arm was covering the catcher….I was constantly pulling off on everything, yanking my front side. I needed to clean that up and keep my shoulders more square.”
Working on advice from Royals pitching coach Cal Eldred during the league shutdown, Keller fixed his delivery and turned his slider into a prominent part of his arsenal. 38.2% of his pitches were sliders in 2020, well up from a 31.2% usage in 2019 and a 26.2% usage in 2018. As per Fangraphs’ pitch value and slider runs above average (wSL) metrics, Keller had the third-most effective slider of any pitcher in baseball, behind only Dinelson Lamet and Zach Plesac.
More from around baseball as the Dodgers sit a game away from a championship…
- Dan Straily’s first season in Korea was a success, and the right-hander tells Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News that he has yet to make a decision about a potential second season with the KBO League’s Lotte Giants. Before anything, Straily wants to return to the United States to see his family for the first time in nine months, as COVID-19 travel restrictions kept him in South Korea. “I want to be with my wife when the decision starts coming up and my agent starts talking to the team about this,” Straily said. After inking a one-year, $1MM contract with the Lotte Giants last winter, Straily posted a 2.50 ERA with 205 strikeouts over 194 2/3 innings, becoming arguably the league’s top pitcher and a popular figure with fans. It was a solid rebound season after a tough 2019 for Straily that saw him allow 22 homers over only 47 2/3 innings with the Orioles, resulting in a 9.82 ERA.
- The Phillies hold a $7MM club option on Hector Neris for 2021, which the team could see as an acceptable price tag for a reliever who has been generally solid over parts of seven MLB seasons. However, in an offseason where the Phillies are dealing with revenue losses and trying to get under the luxury tax threshold, NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Corey Seidman sees Neris as a possible extension candidate. Seidman floats the possibility of a two-year contract worth $9MM-$10MM, which seems like a good number from the Phils’ perspective, though it remains to be seen if Neris or his agents would accept such an offer. The team has some leverage in the sense that Neris probably wouldn’t like to test the very uncertain 2020-21 free agent market, yet Neris might also have confidence that the Phillies wouldn’t actually decline his option since the Phils are in such dire need of bullpen help.
- Chaim Bloom’s first year in charge of the Red Sox front office was a tumultuous one, and the Boston Globe’s Alex Speier looked beyond the unprecedented events (the pandemic’s effect on the season and the Mookie Betts trade) to examine patterns about how Bloom will shepherd the team going forward. The Sox mostly targeted controllable players, and the sheer volume of transactions was also different, as the 2020 club had the most roster turnover of any Red Sox team of the past decade. “It goes back to being more open-minded and willing to be more aggressive with the bottom end of our 40-man roster,” assistant GM Eddie Romero said. “The 40-man roster became more of a living document. It was a daily conversation. It required daily upkeep.”
Neris is terrible and even on a team with the worst bullpen of the modern era it’s impossible to justify him pulling down $7m next year. They should try to trade him and if there are no takers simply let him go.
I truly believe Neris is a non-tender candidate. An extension for a lesser amount is somewhat interesting, but Neris is also a middling reliever who only has one plus pitch. There is very little chance of the Phillies picking up that $7mm option.
Neris is still arb-eligible. Team will decline option, and likely tender him a contract. Probably will be back at a slightly lower salary than his option ($5M?)
“Neris is terrible and even on a team with the worst bullpen in the modern era it’s impossible to justify him pulling down $7m” … “we should try to trade him.” If hes so bad why would anyone give up anything for him?
$10 says if they do trade him for bag of used balls, this guy will be in the comments section complaining they should’ve got more.
Neris should settle back in if he’s moved out of the 9 spot, but in an era where good BP help can be cheap he’s not worth $7 million. too much for a uncontrolled variable.
I think we’re going to see teams spending far less than in recent years due to uncertainty with fan attendance and fans boycotting sports.
i really dont think the boycotting will have as much of an impact as you think. people forget things pretty quickly.
I have quite a few acquaintances that have stopped watching sports in general and I honestly don’t see them going back. As a die hard fan like myself I could never do it but there are a ton of casual fans that are tuning out.
Regardless of anyone’s political views, it’s troubling
Like your name Fred and more importantly I agree. No accounts I know suggest he used and one HR keeps him out? Clutch at the plate too. No offense to Mr. Shea or others but he’s the one from that line up that I didn’t want up rooting against the Braves. Similar to the late 70s and the Yankees. For every big HR you got from Reggie, how many times did Munson (or even Sweet Lou) beat you?
Nice to hear Straily became a star in Korea. Hope he can come back and put on that same performance!
At first glance, Dan Straily seems overqualified for that Korea/Japan route back into MLB, he’s actually had 2 or 3 pretty solid seasons in the majors.
But, I get it, he probably sees all these crappy pitchers who dominate there and get pretty decent money and financial security to come back to the majors so he took that route.
Boston should be completely embarrassed over trading Betts. Rather, they’re spinning the matter in their PR machine – inexcusable.
The Red Sox were a “living document?” Look mostly dead to me, just like Bloom’s tenure so far. Looks like he won’t even be allowed to pick his own manager.
He won’t. It’s a Henry-Warner call. In the parlance of the article, Bloom is in charge of the “bottom end of the 40-man”…the rest is the area of ownership and Sam Kennedy.
To be fair, Bloom has the pedigree of dealing with the “lower half” effectively. But thinking he can translate that skill to large market/ large contracts is VERY TBD. And with Henry taking FSG public, there might not be a lot of wiggle room.
Freidman’s grown in stature (and salary, I assume) moving from TB to LA; it’s pretty well deserved. Can Bloom make that transition, with a more demanding ownership? So far, he’s been rather “meh”. But people get better with more experience. But again, “meh” doesn’t sell in Boston for a long period.
Bob if you are right that Bloom isn’t fielding his own team then you can understand why DD is gone. He wouldn’t have accepted that. Also, based on that premise, we need new ownership because Henry-Warner have already proven to be inept with the Mookie/Price deal.
Let’s all hope as fans that Bloom gets to choose his manager and pick the players on the team he wants. Otherwise, we simply have a GM to swap out minor league talent in a big market organization. That’s both sad and pathetic.
The Sox fans, and I count myself one for over 60 years, look at the dark side. The brighter side would be they got a young controllable RF and disposed of $54 Million of salary annually. The Question is do they make the same mistake all over again? If they do, so what–it’s not your money. Most of you, like me, don’t go to the games.
I actually found the team rather fun to watch. They started playing decent ball the last 10 games. If most teams lost their 4 best pitchers, Sale, ERod, Price and Porcello they wouldn’t do much in a shortened 60 game season.
Don’t worry about the Sox–they’ll be back eventually. Between Henry, Warner & and Bloom they will put a good product on the field in ’21.
Great points. Spot on. The only hiccup could be the availability of quality free agents this offseason. Could delay the quick jump back to prominence.
I also have been a life long RS fan. I saw my first game at Fenway in 1956. In my personal memory there were 48 yrs with ZERO WS titles before Henry bought the team. and FOUR titles in 18 yrs since. Enough said.
Jmi1950 – 4 WS since ‘04 is more World Series than the following franchises have in their entire history:
Cubs – 3
Braves – 3
Orioles – 3
Twins – 3
White Sox – 3
Phillies – 2
Indians – 2
Mets – 2
Royals – 2
Marlins – 2
Blue Jays – 2
Astros – 1
Angeles – 1
AZ – 1
Nationals – 1
Rangers – 0
Padres – 0
Rockies – 0
Rays – 0
Brewers – 0
Mariners – 0 (never even been in a WS)
21 franchises have fewer WS wins than the Red Sox (total of 9) have in the last 16 years, and those 4 are with the Henry ownership group. I think they are entitled to make whatever decision they choose. They have a proven track record which is unmatched this century.
49 year Red Sox fan
Not at least for me if they rehire Alex
*Cheat’n* Cora for 21.
Dewey – i was referring to players, but i would prefer they not hire Cora also.
Betts was never resigning and the players the Red Sox received were a good return considering LA was taking on $78 million in salary with no guarantee Betts would resign.
So many mlb fans keep saying RS front office should have kept Betts. They did not own him, and he was not a slave, the contact was not one sided. Betts signed where Betts wanted, so he had all the cards to make his decision.
What i do not understand is why more clubs do not trade guys they feel they will not be able to resign if they feel they will not compete fora WS…. There is usually a team that feels they are one player away and will take a shot to win a WS. Looking at the 21 teams that have so few of WS. Maybe when the RS win there 5th WS this century in a few years fans will stop talking about Betts.
Madmac44 – you are totally on point!!!! Missing Sale, Rodriguez, Price made 2020 unwinnable.
Houck era 0.53 and Pivetta era 1.80 were 5-0
in their 5 starts. If the season went another 102 games it would have been interesting to see where they would have finished. The RS won 5 of their last 7 and 8 of their last 13 and the 24-36 record could have easily turned in .500 or better. As the Red Sox started weeding out Godley, Hart, Peraza,….failed experiments and start to use some the players that will be on next year’s team the W-L record improved dramatically. There were more players at the alternative training site that looked great and that I would loved to have seen in the mlb. Almost all the games were available online.
Madmc44 – I’m like you in that I’ve watched nearly 50 years before we won and my dad watched 80 years and died in August of 03. I remember the dark side all too well and the bad choices made. For 20 years we’ve turned things around by finding the key elements to success. Pedro, Papi and many others. I believed Mookie to be one of those keys to success that historically we let go but not during the last 20 years.
Something changed within the ownership group this past year and now it resembles the dark days. We can all hope that Bloom can change things back to the bright days but I haven’t bought in yet. I’m not convinced he’s anything more than a puppet who can take credit for improving a farm system ranking that was wrong to begin with. The ;sustainability’ part of the speeches when we hired him didn’t ring true since we had sustained success for 20 years. Yes, it was an up and down pattern but two things held true during the time period – key star players with a knack for winning big games and lots of money spent. We just gave away one of our key players and we just cut back our spending so this Red Sox team isn’t like the ones of the past 20 years. We took a formula that was working and chose to change it when it wasn’t broken.
The only way we’ll be back eventually is if the money comes back and we acquire some clutch performers. Without money, that won’t be easy. You and I have far less time than most people on this site to see our next ring. When DD was here I expected to see one. Now I don’t. Things could change with our money situation or our quality of players but until it does, I think we’ve both seen our last rings. Ownership lost it’s mind about a year ago, let’s hope they sell or regain some perspective on winning.
The Red Sox have ALWAYS let guys over 30 and who wanted big money WALK. Let them walk, see ya, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
Jason Bay Pedro Martinez Jacoby Ellsbury Johnny Damon. Let them walk. Mookie’s only 26 but he wants a 10-year deal. Let him walk. It HAS been the pattern the last 20 years.
I agree with most of your comment, however after seeing the plethora of young pitching arms the Dodgers displayed in the playoffs, I would have liked to see Graeterol or any one of the young lefties in addition to Verdugo for Betts, Price and the monetary savings.
ditto
They had Brusdar Graterol. They had him in hand. Deemed him unacceptable. Did you miss it? It was last winter when they traded Mookie.
And they instead got their 2B and CA of the future and a above average RF. Would have loved a pitcher too but they still got a great haul.
Ellis – Let’s not exaggerate. They didn’t come close to a great haul. Torres for Chapman is a great haul. Why did it happen? Urgency. Was there urgency in January? No. If there had been insisting on a SP would have gotten us a SP. Urias or May rather than Verdugo. That would have been a good haul. The deal we got would have been surpassed in July when urgency existed. Three teams fighting to win the NL all would have killed to have Mookie. Atlanta, LAD and SD would have gone toe to toe since the one that gets him wins the NL. All have deep farm systems with pitching.
WS just ended. The NL winner among the 3 NL teams would have won the WS not just the NL!!! Friedman owes Bloom a yacht for taking such a low ball deal.
You don’t understand that it’s possible you could get less in July. Remember Mookie is in his contract year. That’s pretty important when trading for a guy. You’re not going to give up MORE in July LOL you’re going to give up more in January and get a full year out of him.
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. You don’t pass up a good deal in January for the hopes to get more in July. Who’s going to give you more return for just two months of Mookie?
I understand what you’re saying but there’s two sides to some of these things you’re pointing out. Your statements are compelling but you’re not 100% right on some of these things. Good takes though and I appreciate it. They’re well thought out.
No I goy it. He was the Twins reliever heading to Boston. Bloom and Medical people questioned it. The Dodgers moved Maeda to the Twins to be sure Mookie and Price headed west and kept Graeterol.
What’s interesting is the Dodgers were desperate to move Maeda. And I’m not sure why. He was going to Minnesota and Brusdar Graterol was coming to the Red Sox. When that fell apart the Dodgers still moved Maeda to the Twins and just kept Graterol. I wonder why the Dodgers wanted to be rid of Maeda no matter who the return would have been. Either Graterol the Sox or back to the Dodgers. I wonder if anybody else has heard anything ??
Is it a salary thing because price was coming so they had to move Kenta Maeda?
So the Dodgers were being a little bit cost-conscious because you can never have too many starters. Oh heavens how could the Dodgers do such a thing and watch their payroll? As somebody said, saving pocket change ?
I don’t think it was a health thing because the twins wouldn’t have accepted him right? Anyway I wonder if anyone knows.
Over the past few seasons, the Red Sox have acquired four pitchers: Price as a FA and Sale, Porcello, Eovaldi in trades, who have cost them $384 million in salaries (includes $48 million to the Dodgers as part of Price’s contract). These acquisitions have also cost them Betts, Moncado, Kopech, Basabe, Diaz, Cespedes, Speier, Wilson, Beeks, and Price.
Price gave the Red Sox 46 wins and 24 losses in 4 seasons.
Sale gave them 35 wins and 23 losses in 4 seasons.
Porcello gave them 73 wins and 55 losses in 5 seasons.
Eovaldi gave them 9 wins and 6 losses in 3 seasons.
Just think, in the last few years the Red Sox got 163 wins and 108 losses from those four pitchers and all it cost them was $384 million plus Betts (and Price) and 8 other players (some of whom are now MLB players) for Verdugo and 2 minor league prospects. I’m impressed.
You’re conveniently leaving out the World Series championship. Selective reasoning much?
You’re also going to be impressed when the Red Sox come back and win again sometime in the next five years. Seems to be the pattern of this century. I’m sure you’ve missed that info as well as you culled you’re meaningless statistics from baseball reference.com.
Gee, and the Dodgers only had to give Betts a $365 million, 12-year extension.
BTW, I didn’t include all the money the Red Sox wasted. But to get to your question about “selective reasoning,” they also had four last place finishes during Henry’s ownership. After the club’s last two World Series’ wins, their record dropped off 26 and 14 games the following year.
David Price made $31,000,000 for throwing 1862 pitches in 2019,. That was $16648.76 per pitch, which is more than I make in Social Security a year. Baseball is not a game anymore and Manfred seems determined to make it worse while John Henry, et al, seem to be most interested in making money.
Since 2010, I been to 11 MLB games (about two-thirds of those while attending SABR conventions and only 3-4 at Fenway, even though I live about 50 miles away) and 94 minor league games. Now, I don’t know what going to happen with yearly minor league get-together with friends from around the country.
Otto – please refer to my post above….the Red Sox have 4 World Series titles in 16 years!!!! That is more than 21/30 mlb franchise in their entire franchise history!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Success speaks for itself…..lol how the clueless do not get it……Yankees have not been in a WS in 11 years and have spent over a billion dollars since then (actually it is overs 2 billion in those 11 years) and 0 WS appearances lol, lol, lol, lol
I think to me if they’re winning every 5 years, a last-place finish here and there doesn’t matter. Sometimes you finish last trying to “run it back” with the same Squad but people don’t realize how difficult it is to repeat. Giving that same effort two years in a row is a lot to ask of someone with a guaranteed salary.
Actually I’m not surprised at Last Place finishes after winning. A couple role players leave for big paydays and as I said repeating is not easy. Paying that price again is a lot to ask.
Gary – if you look at the rosters there was 80 percent roster turnover between each of the WS wins: 04 and 07, (no Pedro,Lowe,Millar, Mueller, Damon, ….in 07), 07 and 13, 13 and 18. Do not call it a rebuild as the Red Sox were in the playoffs 10 times in 16 years starting in 2003!!!! You and I get it as a WS title is definitely worth a last place finish!!
Red Sox have 4 WS since 04. The success of the Henry ownership has very few that can come close. As I posted above 21 franchises have never ever won 4 WS!!!! The Yankees have not been since 2009….my nephew Mr. Yankee bragger had no response to that.
it takes money to make money. Sox though now have four last place finishes in the last ten years if this farce of a season is counted. I won’t give back championships but the goal is to be consistently good AND win.
What is success? How is it measured? For me it’s measured in rings. I don’t remember too many second place finishes or too many last place finishes but I remember the rings. Does finishing last after winning matter if you win again within a few years or is it better to finish second for decades?
Everyone has their own preferences. I consider 4 rings in 20 years consistently winning as opposed to winning divisions and no rings for 32 years or 12 years. I take no issue with people wanting to finish in the money every year like the Patriots did with Brady but we still only count the Superbowls and World Series wins. Everything else is a means to an end.
So being consistently good can be a great added bonus to winning but it’s not necessary to winning. The Red Sox and Pats have found two different paths to greatness. Now, both are in deep trouble because they didn’t recognize the key components to winning. Tom Brady and Mookie Betts. There is always an exception to the Belichick rule that it’s the system that wins. Brady and Betts are that exception for their respective teams.
It’s a hard lesson to learn for Boston fans. Two huge mistakes and all the magic disappears. Let’s hope the spoiled youth who have grown up with all the Boston winning continue to see it going forward. Maybe it’s time for the Celtics and Bruins to rise to the top for a while.
Bloom blew it on the Mookie trade. I love Verdugo but NO PITCHING?
You have to understand that the state of the Red Sox farm system was weak at best. You get one pitcher and Wong and downs or you can get Verdugo Wong and downs and get rid of price. Picking up four young guys really helps the quantity in the farm. I can see why bloom made this particular trade for this particular return.
Perhaps now in trades the Red Sox can zero in on pitching? But I’ll tell you what, teams are not giving up pitching so easily. Bloom’s doing a great job in my opinion.
Actors always say: “Dying is easy, comedy is difficult..”
For MLB GM’s it’s: Getting fired is easy, finding quality pitchers is difficult.”
Jim – lol funny and true.
No GM wants to let pitching go, or if they do you have to over pay….
Pasha, he took the best available offer. No one knows what else was offered but don’t you think he would have accepted a young Pedro if one was offered?
LA hoards pitching for a reason. chances are they got better value then they would have to pry a pitcher away. and the concern over Brusdar is very valid.
Dewey – correct !! LA was not going to let pitching go and that is why the Twins were included in the original deal. Graterol was supposed to be a starting pitcher, but his medical showed this would not be the case. In the end it was more important to get the deal done than hold out for a pitcher.
ZZ – It was more important and that’s why it made no sense. Urgency is the key to winning a trade. There was none in January which is the biggest reason we didn’t get what we wanted. LAD would have gone hard after Mookie in July if they thought Atlanta or San Diego might get him. Pitchers would have been offered by all because they all had urgency for the ring in July. Ownership screwed up. It’s that simple. We keep selling low and buying high. Downs had 12 good games in the minors but somehow got ranked #44! Someone has an in with the people ranking prospects. Friedman completely outplayed Bloom and ownership. What a costly schooling.
When I watched the World Series I checked the total payrolls.
Tampa $ 28,773,481
Los Angeles $ 94,977,918
Tampa got there for 30%
I’m really glad I got to watch it for free.
And glad I didn’t pay over 3 times what Tampa did to get there.
And really interesting to watch a Moneyball team compete and almost win it all.