8:12pm: The deal is official. Wisler has a chance to earn an additional $500K in performance bonuses, Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area tweets.
9:15am: The Giants are in agreement with righty Matt Wisler on a one-year, $1.15MM contract for the 2021 season, pending a physical, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports (via Twitter). Wisler was recently a surprise non-tender by the Twins on the heels of a strong 2020 season. The Giants will be able to control Wisler through the 2022 campaign via arbitration.
Wisler, 28, was a waiver claim by the Twins last offseason but emerged as a key bullpen piece in 2020, racking up 25 1/3 frames with a pristine 1.07 ERA on the year. He punched out 35 hitters in that time (12.4 K/9) and recorded a strong 13.9 percent swinging-strike rate, although control issues and good fortune in terms of stranding runners also led fielding-independent metrics to cast a more negative light on his season.
Wisler walked 14 batters (5.0 BB/9) and hit another pair while stranding an unsustainable 99 percent of the runners he allowed. The resulting 3.35 FIP and 4.00 SIERA weren’t quite as rosy as that more rudimentary ERA.
That said, Wisler is still an intriguing addition for a Giants club that is known to be in the market for bullpen help. While he’s not a marquee name by any stretch of the means, Wisler is a former high-end pitching prospect who washed out as a starter but has been more interesting in a bullpen role.
This past season with the Twins, he leaned more aggressively into his slider usage than any pitcher in MLB, tossing the pitch at a ridiculous 83.4 percent rate. The 16.6 percent clip at Wisler threw his four-seamer was just enough to keep hitters off balance, and though they surely knew the slider was coming more often than not, that predictability didn’t matter; in the 92 plate appearances that ended with a Wisler slider, opponents posted a pitiful .148/.250/.222 batting line.
The Twins seemingly weren’t sold on Wisler’s ability to maintain his output. They wrapped up arb deals with all of their players who were tendered contracts prior to or just after last week’s tender deadline. Since cutting Wisler loose, president of baseball ops Derek Falvey has explained that the team couldn’t come to terms with Wisler on a mutually agreeable number but would still be open to a reunion. That won’t happen now, leaving another hole to be filled in the Minnesota ’pen.
With the Giants, Wisler will join a pretty wide-open late-inning mix. Tyler Rogers, Sam Coonrod, a returning Reyes Moronta and rebound hopeful Trevor Gott comprise the team’s top right-handed options at the moment, while Wandy Peralta and Jarlin Garcia are the most experienced southpaw options of the bunch. Wisler could eventually work his way into some high-leverage spots if he can build on his 2020 success, though he also served as an opener in Minnesota and could be an option to do so with San Francisco as well, depending on how their rotation shapes up.
Lol
World Series Bound!
Good
Hope this kid performs like he did with the twins. He has good stuff.
Probably not. It’ll be nice to see the good guys tee off on him
Depends on who you think the good guys are! Ha! Dodgers aren’t who you’re talking about so you must be talking about the friars.
Last time I checked all the friars trolls disappeared when we swept their butts outta the playoffs…
DANG IT
i wanted him
I’m not sure if you could afford to pay him more than $1.15M, sir.
The Twins really shot themselves in the foot… sad day for us twins fans…
Yup Im said
Lol dude averaged five walks per nine and a 99% strand rate he was more lucky than good
and the rest of his track record is suspect
He also had a low BABIP last year, another indicator of good fortune. Wisler will likely fall back to Earth next season but still a decent low-risk signing for the Giants.
Everybody look out, the Giants are making their moves…or move.
$1.15 mill. seems like a conservative bet that Wisler’s season wasn’t a total fluke. He induced weak contact, partially offset by a high walk rate and an unsustainable strand rate.
If it was, then it’s only 1.15M. That’s not holding the Giants back financially.
If it wasn’t, then it’s pure value for them.
It’s a good move for the money.
Considering MLB minimum is nearly $600K, the price is good. The Mets, for example, just signed Josh Barnes for 750K, and he hasn’t been good in several years. The Giants must like the data behind his pitches.
I’m doubly surprised by this move. Can’t believe more teams weren’t in on him and that he lasted as long as he did, and that he signed a one-year deal at such a bargain price. I still don’t understand why the Twins would walk away from Wisler when the cost was so minimal…..unless they know something the rest of us don’t.
Based on the Giants’ recent track record with low risk 1 year deals to pitchers, this will be fantastic for SF.
A bullpen move that’s low risk – 1 year and @ 1 million. Offers high reward of being a competent, steady bullpen arm. Wisler was once the Braves top pitching prospect in 2015 so he fits the mold of the current regimes constant churning.
Yeah, he could follow in the Lucas Sims mold of finding success recreating (creating?) themselves to become a ‘pen fixture. Good for them and finding what works for them.
Hard not to like this deal from the Giants side. Even of he regresses and his real runs allowed line up with the analytics, he’s a middle reliever for $1.15 million.
I was thinking he would have been on the radar for Kansas City. The stuff is there. He just needs someone to teach him how to reign it in.
The Giants can definitely make this work. I like the move for both sides.
id expect regression but at that money he’s a good add for a rebuilding team
Had a 4.99 xFIP, 4.00 SIERA, 4.63 DRA, but his percentile rankings are phenominal on Savant. The only percentile ranking he’s not in the top 90th+ pecenitle is exit velocity and K%, but those are in the 85th and 89th. Definitley seems like a regression candidate, but it seems the Giants are able to get the most out of deals like this.
Wisler=Romo 2.0
83.9% usage of the slider is very reminiscent of Sergio Romo. And because they were teammates in 2020 I’m sure that had some impact on Wisler’s pitch selection.
Great sign for the Giants and bad news for the Twins. But the Giants need to continue using their market leverage and scoop up players that other teams don’t want to pay. $1.15M for 2021? Sounds like a bargain to me.
On point. Only difference is Romo’s slider is the “no dot” variety.
The only difference between the dot and no dot, is whether the axis of rotation is through a seam, or the white part of the ball. The no dot does make pitch recognition tougher. But, dot or no dot, the amount of usage is what makes the comparison with Romo apt.
Keep the relief pitchers coming. Anyone but Coonrod.
Great signing, 0 risk and he’s 100% going to be as good, or even better than our worst options from last year.
I’m as big a fan of mixed idioms as anyone but “by any stretch of the means” really knocked my boots off.
boots or socks?
Nothing gets by you. :-/
No, I’m serious, is boots acceptable? maybe there is more than one way to say it. Kinda of a multi- dimensional idiom.
Btw FBS, I thought the same thing when I saw “stretch of the means”.
Sorry. I was trying to make a comment about mixed idioms by using another mixed idiom. Apparently it fell flat. Either that, or you’re just effing with me and it’s going over MY head.
Dude, I’m not effing with you and now I realize that I’m a complete idiot. I now see that when you used boots you knew it was supposed to be socks. It went completely over MY head. But now I know your sense of humor and I promise I won’t do this to you again. If I could start all over I would have recognized you INTENTIONALLY said boots to be facetious.
again, please accept my apology
Starting over here FBS, I’m a Giants fan from the 60’s. You?
No worries. Wasn’t trying to be disrespectful; just comment section banter.
Lifelong Met fan.
It was funny though. I dont like not getting jokes.
Met fan how long?
Coming up on 50 years
52 here
Hope he has a career year in SF.
There’s certainly regression-risk here, but that extra year of control sweetens the risk/reward ratio for the Giants (as it did last year with Kevin Gausman). And he’s only 28 years old. – more than a year younger than Guasman was when he signed.
While he may not be quite as good as last year’s numbers suggest, it’s hard to understand why the Twins weren’t willing to bring him back for somewhere between $1-2 million. Great low-risk, high-reward pickup for the Giants.
At the museum, even the painting of WISLER’S MOTHER managed a small smile of satisfaction at the news !!
No thanks to the hapless Mr. Bean 😉
Wisler has “control issues”….
Haven’t we all at times….
Yes, but…for pitchers this is usually where they fail to make the next step
Good for him. Kid had all that potential, could never put it together. Keep fighting man
Good for him! I remember when he was on the braves he’d have outings where you think he was about to break out and then there were times when you couldn’t stand to watch when he was on the mound. I will always root for wisler though, he seems to be a real nice kid. I remember one day when me and my son went to a game at Turner field and he took the time to autograph my son’s hat and a ball and he took the time to talk to my son and ask questions about how old he was and who was his favorite player. It made my kids day and it’s something he still occasionally talks about. He made a fan for life on that night
@ Mr Two tone…
Top story and it takes so little to make such a difference to a kid. I’m guessing the ball and cap are some of your son’s prized possessions.
On a baseball note I think this is a really good addition for the Giants and for sinkerball/groundball pitchers the “advanced” metrics are all over the place. It’s a very Farhan Zaidi pick up. Bit peeved the A’s weren’t in on this guy…