The Royals have signed Brad Brach to a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training, the team announced. Brach began the winter by exercising a $2.075MM player option to stay with the Mets, money still owed by New York. Last week the Mets designated Brach for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster for Jonathan Villar. He was later released after passing through waivers.
Brach struggled through a drop in velocity from 94.1 mph on his four-seamer in 2019 to just 90.3 mph in 2020. The fall in velocity coincided with a decline in four-seamer usage as Brach relied more heavily on an east-west moving cutter/slider, though he never found a groove during his 12 1/3 innings. He walked and stuck out an identical 24.1 percent of hitters, carrying over a command issue that plagued his half a season with the Cubs. He’d seemed to have figured it out over the back end of 2019 with the Mets, a 14 2/3 innings with a 3.68 ERA/2.67 FIP, 24.6 percent strikeout rate and sterling 4.9 percent walk rate. That’s a far better walk rate than Brach has been able to sustain elsewhere in his career, however, with an 8.0 percent walk rate being his absolute best mark over a full season.
Brach may find a bit of overcrowding in the Royals bullpen. Greg Holland, Josh Staumont, Scott Barlow, Jesse Hahn, Kyle Zimmer, and Jake Newberry can reasonable expect to find themselves on the roster given their 2020 performances. Jakob Junis could be bumped to the pen, and Wade Davis is in camp as a non-roster invitee. Tyler Zuber, Gabe Speier, and Richard Lovelady are also looking to secure spots, though they have options remaining
I feel bad for him that we let go of him. He was a huge Met fan growing up and with some of his comments he was really excited about this upcoming year. Good luck with the Royals.
MetsFan22 giving praise to a non Met player never saw that coming. Nice to hear about Brach tho
Soto top 3 hitter in the Majors imo.
Thx you and he is. My praise for you is Degrom is a the #100 pitcher…..Jk probably best in league right now.
Degrom will win his 3rd CY this year.
He is the favorite, but I obviously want Strasburg to bounce back and win
I like the positivity, Dominic Smith will have a .900+ OPS in 2021. Mad Max will shutout the braves twice next year. My predictions as a braves fan. Play ball!
The NL east is great. All 4 teams could probably win division. Obviously there is favorites. But the marlins are a lock for last.
The Mets are closer to being a lock for last than the Marlins are, who finished in last again in 2020?
And the yankees will fade in the playoffs.
lol
Dayton is a master of finding guys after camp has already started that end up playing a significant role and/or get flipped for prospects. This won’t be the last guys he brings in over the next few weeks.
There are 2 million reasons not to feel sorry for him.
such a bad move by the Mets. Could have used that money plus a few more bucks to sign a useful reliever they would have kept around
His cousin Brad Breth – the fire-breathing righty from Halitosis, Nebraska has been invited on a Milb deal….
Sorry, bored at work on a Monday afternoon – flame away….
@London
That was pretty good bro, thanks for the chuckle!
Well I guess it’s Brach to the drawing board in Kansas City.
I like that pun you did there!
The Candy Man!!!