The Orioles added an upside play to their bullpen, acquiring Shintaro Fujinami from the A’s. Minor league reliever Easton Lucas is going back to Oakland in a one-for-one swap. Baltimore designated infielder Josh Lester for assignment to clear a 40-man roster spot.
Fujinami signed a one-year, $3.25MM free agent contract over the winter. The A’s took a flier on his upside despite an inconsistent decade-long run in Japan. The 6’6″ righty brought high-octane stuff but a spotty performance track record and wobbly control to the big leagues.
A cursory glance at Fujinami’s season line would suggest the experiment didn’t pay off. He concluded his A’s tenure with an 8.57 ERA through 49 1/3 innings. No other pitcher with 40+ frames has allowed more than eight earned runs per nine.
That ghastly season line is skewed by an incredibly poor first couple months. Initially penciled into the starting rotation, Fujinami was tagged for a 14.26 ERA across seven starts. The A’s understandably kicked him mostly to relief work by late April.
Fujinami’s 5.40 ERA over 31 2/3 relief innings isn’t eye-catching itself. That’s also skewed by some growing pains early on. The 29-year-old has worked scoreless outings in 15 of his last 20 appearances. Since May 27 — an admittedly arbitrary endpoint — Fujinami owns a 3.32 ERA in 21 2/3 frames. He’s striking hitters out at a quality 25.6% clip against a modest 7% walk rate in that time.
There’s risk in placing too much emphasis on a player’s recent trajectory compared to their overall body of work, of course. It’s perhaps easier to buy into Fujinami’s stronger results of late given the quality of his arsenal. Working in shorter stints has pushed the average velocity on his four-seam fastball from an already strong 97 MPH to the 99-100 MPH range. He’s also leaned more heavily on a 93-94 MPH split while scaling back on his mid-80s cutter.
Baltimore will hope the simplified pitch mix and continued experience against big league hitters allows Fujinami to maintain his form of the past six weeks. He’ll add a power arm to the middle innings of an already excellent relief corps. Baltimore’s bullpen entered play Wednesday ranked eighth in the majors with a 3.79 ERA. They’re fourth with a 26.1% strikeout percentage.
It’s a little more top-heavy than the typical bullpen, though. Félix Bautista and Yennier Cano have been fantastic at the back end, while veteran Danny Coulombe has excelled as the top southpaw. Bryan Baker and Mike Baumann have been generally effective, but both have issued a few too many walks. Fujinami is far from a control artist himself, but he provides skipper Brandon Hyde with another option to bridge the gap to Cano and Bautista.
The addition is solely about 2023. Fujinami will be a free agent again at season’s end. Even though he’ll only have one year of major league service, players signing out of Asian professional leagues are almost always granted the ability to return to the open market once their MLB contract plays out. Baltimore will take on the approximate $1.3MM in salary still owed to the righty through the end of the season.
Oakland offloads a small amount of cash and brings in an upper level relief option. Lucas is a 6’4″ southpaw who was selected by the Marlins in the 14th round of the 2019 draft. Miami traded him to Baltimore over the 2019-20 offseason for veteran infielder Jonathan Villar.
The 26-year-old is amidst a strong season in the upper minors. He’s split his time almost evenly between Double-A Bowie and Triple-A Norfolk. Over 29 2/3 combined frames, he owns a 2.73 ERA with an excellent 31.9% strikeout percentage and tolerable 9.5% walk rate. He’s holding left-handed hitters to a .200/.265/.378 batting line.
Lucas will be eligible for the Rule 5 draft if he’s not added to the 40-man roster at the end of the season. Considering his upper minors success and Oakland’s MLB-worst 5.72 bullpen ERA, he’ll probably get a big league look at some point in the coming weeks.
It’s the first of what is likely to be multiple moves for both clubs. The A’s have already stripped the roster most of the way down, but players like Paul Blackburn, Tony Kemp and Seth Brown could still find themselves on the move. Baltimore has pulled ahead of the Rays (on a percentage point basis) in the AL East and figures to look for rotation upgrades over the next two weeks.
Jon Heyman of the New York Post first reported Fujinami was being dealt to the Orioles and that Lucas was the return. John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle and Martín Gallegos of MLB.com had previously observed that Fujinami was saying goodbye to his Oakland teammates.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Arigoto
Domo. Domo.
This might cost the A’s some losses
There goes the playoffs
As soon as he starts pitching well the A’s trade him for a AAA relief pitcher. Fisher just wanted to save a few million. Get used to it Vegas people a very bad team.
@arc
While you’re right about the A’s and Fisher as a whole, this deal in a vacuum is not a great example of that.
Yes, they are saving some bucks in this deal, but they are out of contention and doing so on a rental player who has shown potential but is in no way a sure thing. In exchange, they are receiving… a player who has shown potential but is in no way a sure thing, just younger. Not sure they could have done much better than that.
A business wanting to save money?..
Oh the horror of it all. This never happens in hundreds of other businesses every day, right
Well, usually the other businesses in the area don’t all contribute to a pool of funds to equally share with each business, while the “business wanting to save money” slashes costs and turns out intentionally god awful products while relying on the revenue sharing to turn a profit.
Cry me a river. I guess you never noticed the Cubs and Astros did similar things and won a World Series. We’re you crying then too, buddy or just rooting your team on?
The Cubs and Astros both tore down their franchises and moved to a new city for a taxpayer funded real estate deal? That’s crazy, you’d think it would be in the news.
‘A business, with the shoddiest product on the market, cutting even more corners.’
There I fixed it for ya.
Plus has up to six years of control if he performs. Last place teams are supposed to move rentals for longer term pieces (are you listening, Yankees?).
No he doesn’t, his Japan service time counts because he’s over 35
No he doesn’t, his Japan service time counts because he’s over 25
bad comparison since the As seem like they are in this cycle far too often. Even the Os did this over the past 5 years, tore it down to the studs 5 years ago, were bad for 3 years, middling last year, and look like a playoff team now.
The difference is the As strip down to absolutely nothing all the time, and i personally see no real end in sight for it. Other teams try to at least avoid a 100 loss season in the rebuilds, the As just do not care. They regularly trade for upper minors players rather than something that could actually become a building block. Instead of this guy, trade for a pair of 17 year olds with a 2% chance of being really good- since that is a 2% chance of actually being good again- rather than the 50% chance this guy becomes the 6th man out of your bullpen.
I believe styme was referring to the player that Oakland got in return.
@mlb
The A’s and Astros aren’t really analogous situations. The Astros fell out of their window of competitiveness, and leaned into it. The A’s sold off players from a good team to cut costs.
And I can’t speak for other commenters, bur people were definitely upset when the Astros tanked for several years, so your gesture to perceived hypocrisy sort of falls flat there. In fact, they were one of the main catalysts towards the draft rules changing that having the worst record does not mean an automatic first pick.
Wait the Cubs used trash cans too?
Just clearing the books so they can sign Ohtani this summer.
George O’tani. He’s a 43 year old Irishman that’s the local conkers champ.
Yeah right, like they can afford George “Conker King” O’tani.
Don’t forget the masterful trade that nets them Aaron Judge, just to round out the middle of their order. He’ll be protected by Seth Brown.
Hey, they beat the Dead Sox two out of three. So there’s that.
Not against the pitiful Red Sox
Wow didn’t see this happening but granted Fuji was not signed past this season plus the adjustment process has not been easy and the A’s are simply retooling at this point…
Good pickup. Good luck.
> reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post
BY THE HEYMAN OF OLIVIA NEW YORK POST!
This might cross the A’s losses!
Why?
High velo = potential
the Os have a great history of fixing these sorts of bullpen arms- bautista was a nobody signing by the Os, Jorge Lopez was a high velo failed started they made work then flipped for (among others, and really a down card to the trade) Yannier Cano who they fixed and now looks insane. colombre was a contract purchased from the twins…. this is exactly the sort of high upside bullpen arm that the Os seek out to make work.
Article did a pretty good job of setting it up, minor league arm that went out of the MLB on a decent streak of low 3 era bullpen work.
Another triple digit arm for the Orioles
He only has three fingers?
Somewhere Mordecai Brown is smiling.
They need to sign Antonio Alfonseca to even things out
And here we go!
Let’s hope this isn’t their only Japanese acquisition if you know what I mean
The O’s certainly have an overabundance of top prospects to trade for Ohtani.
Hmm, trade most of your farm for two months of Ohtani, or get a different player now, sign Ohtani in the off season, and keep most of the farm?? Not a tough decision.
It’d be like 3 guys and a couple Maybe’s. Do they want to win or not?
I would be angry if they traded Cowser, holliday or any of the guys that are in the bigs now…. but that still leaves a strong core to offer headlined by Joey Ortiz and Connor Norby.
i still think one gets turned into Montgomery or Giolito instead.
That is not the question. The question is whether you increase your odds of being winning this year or do you increase your odds of winning over the next several years. Short term or long term.. Different strategies. My preference is always think long term, yours may not be. That’s fine, just personal preferences.
Don’t do it. You may regret the prospects you give up. There’s a lot of good going on in Baltimore. Why interrupt that for a few months of Ohtani?
If not the O’s, then somebody else the O’s will see again in the Post. No sense not making a good effort at it. There are limits, but the O’s have the means and the motivation.
Assume they keep everyone in the bigs right now- and Holliday is still untouchable.
they still could deal top 100 guys like Joey Ortiz, connor Nobry, Heston Hjerstad or Basallo. Ortiz and Norby are blocked by Westburg, Henderson and soon to be Holliday (who is now in the upper minors at 19), Not many other teams looking can casually throw out 2 top 75 prospects and only be talking about their spare parts from the rebuild….. Then McKenna, Stowers, Haskins all have value and have shown flashes or done very well in the upper minors to work something out.
Come on O’s, an 8 ERA?
April/May=transition to USA
June/July=more likely his skills
He has a 100 mph sinker and a 103 fastball maybe there pitching coach can help. It’s really not a bad pickup
And a 93 MPH splitter!
If his splitter is 93, what is his spitter?
Zero chance they had 40 man room for Lucas in the offseason. He was 8-9 below the cut line. They were losing him in the R5. Fujinami is a lottery ticket. Kind of like the Cuban guy in the Twins deal a year ago.
Not sure Lucas was getting taken in the R5 anyways. We’re talking about a soon to be 27 year old reliever “prospect”
on those a’s though, he’s the #3 option out of the pen. both teams did decent at getting value they think they can work with
He had a bad start to the year, but look at his recent stuff. Not nearly as bad. His last 20 appearances, 21.2 innings, 8 BB, 22ks, batting average against is like 234, inheritted runners scoring is like 40 something percent, It’s not terrible…. it’s why looking at the season number of ERA for a RP is pretty stupid.
I assure you that guys wouldn’t feel that way about Chapman/Hader/Shawn Tolleson/Tateyama/every Rangers’ pitching prospect ever if the guy started out with a 1.00 ERA in 30 innings and then had a 15 ERA the next 20 (or something like it). Averages are what they are, but if he has improved, that certainly is something. Manoa had 1 awful start and 1 elite start in the minors, and then he did the same in MLB. The bad games are the worse half you can’t ignore. There are way too many guys who do that over short stints and then regress back to normal. He probably won’t be a sub-4 ERA guy in MLB if he’s hardly that good in foreign baseball, but there are always exceptions.
Upgrading to the Orioles defense certainly doesn’t hurt.
They traded for cano when he was below average for the twins now he’s a solid relieve pitcher. Maybe the same can happen with shintaro
Don’t forget that he’ll be moving from a depressing third world franchise situation with grotesquely bad attendance, sewage floods, and a probable triple A stadium future to a team that’s on the upswing and is looking at a playoff run.
He has been scored on once in his last 11 appearances.
Easton wasn’t good enough.
Had to get a Far East ‘un.
Easton is now Weston.
Good start for Os. Middle relief is actually a more immediate need than a starter
The Os biggest issue is middle relief so this hopefully helps. Shorten the game
GoRav114;
Wrote it the other day….
For all the nonsense about the O’s moving their top prospects, playing around with their position players and trading for a big-name starting pitcher (of which none seem to be available), their weakness for a month now has been middle relief, and I expected they’d bring in 2 and probably 3 relief pitchers. And I noted that they would find guys that were not pitching well that their coaches could work with as they have with Cano and Bautista (and Lopez before them).
The O’s are too early in unwinding from their rebuild to start trading away youngsters for high priced rental pitchers.
P.S.
Since very few here watch the games….
The other night Bryan Baker came in from the bullpen in the 6th inning vs. the Dodgers. O’ up 4-2, Dodgers runners in 1st and 2nd, none out. Baker got 2 fly outs. Walked Jason Heyward (who he was ahead 0-2 in the count on) then gave up a grand slam to Chris Taylor.
O’s were up 2, now down 2. That’s how the game ended – 6-4.
Hardly the first time Baker has done that this year, or most of
his middle relief bullpen mates….the only exception being Dan Coulombe who’s been pretty reliable.
No they aren’t, second good year and they look built for the postseason with a tough lineup and strong back end of the bullpen. You never know how things will play out, teams aren’t guaranteed to get better, might be downhill from here, not saying to trade numerous top prospects but they’re at a point where it would be stupid to not go for it.
holecamels35;
It would be stupid to “go for it”.
The Epstein Cubs went for it and won a WS. Whoopie! Two years later their budget (as a large market team) was stretched thin, the team started stinking and has since. Meanwhile the Astros didn’t “Go for it”. They built a teams at the same time to be a sustainable contender, and are now in their 8th straight season of contention – which includes 2 WS championships and a number of AL pennants.
The O’s play in a small market. They’ll need cheap, controlled players over the next 5 years to be a sustainable contender. They’re not the Cubs…..nor are they the White Sox that “Went for it” after a so-called rebuild and couldn’t even get to a WS…and the last 2 years the ML team has unsurprisingly imploded, their budget is out of control, their farm system sucks, and if they trade away all their decent players for prospects – many of whom will wash out – they’ll still be a 2nd division team with no hope of contending any year soon.
The O’s are not a “small market” team. The Baltimore metropolitan area is a small market. The Orioles, however, are the only team in baseball to have a majority interest in another teams television rights. The DC market is top ten.
It’s also recency bias to look at their recent, small, payrolls and assume this ownership group won’t spend. They had the highest payroll in baseball a few times in the mid to late 90’s and spent most of the past 23 years in the middle of the pack. You’ll find several seasons were they were 15th. I get it is now John and not Peter, but John was there when Peter was spending. He saw it didn’t bankrupt the family.
Will they ever been the number one spender again? No. Steven Cohen is bananas. They did, however, spend 140MM or more multiple times and as recently as 2018. They could double their current payroll and be under those numbers.
The Astros brought in Verlander during their 3rd consecutive winning season. The previous two were just better than .500 years. This Oriole team is ahead of that curve. This team stays at the top of the East for a couple more weeks and he’ll pull the trigger on some big moves. They can’t play all the prospects anyway. Keep the guys you like the best and flip the rest.
Roguesaw2;
The O’s ARE a small market team.
You don’t think Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Milwaukee, etc. have small metropolitan areas but larger surrounding areas?
The Baltimore TV market is ranked 26th, directly behind Portland OR, Pittsburgh, Charlotte NC, Indianapolis – and just ahead of Raleigh-Durham.
To put that in perspective, Miami-Ft.Lauderdale (Marlins) is ranked 16th – 10 spots ahead of them – and they are a small market team.
As for getting some revenue from the DC TV rights – that was because the DC area used to be Orioles territory into where they broadcast their games and got ALL the TV revenue for it……as well as having fans drive over from the DC suburbs to see the Orioles play that now drive over to see the Nationals.
The Orioles are in a division with the NY Yankees, Toronto (Canada’s team), the major market and sports crazy Boston team, and Tampa Bay which surprisingly has the 13th largest TV market (Tampa-St. Petersburg) – 13 spots ahead of Baltimore. Of their division competitors only Tampa Bay takes in less revenue….and that may change if they get a new park (and the other 3 franchises take in multiple times more revenue).
–
Mike Elias and Sig Mejdal understood the situation when they took jobs to run the Orioles franchise, and they are proceeding accordingly.
2-3 relievers? I think maybe one other but they’re expecting Tate to provide something for us this year. I think we have a max of 1 other coming in.
@BStrowman9
I am not at all hopeful that Dillon Tate will give the O’s any kind of significant innings. Not 2nd attempt at rehab isn’t ideal. I wish the O’s could count on him in high leverage situations like last year. Hope I’m wrong though.
I just wouldn’t want the team’s playoff success or failure to hinge on Tate’s strong return.
Yeah. I hear you. I just don’t think we bring in 3 guys. I could see another one but that probably means Voth or Perez is DFA’d.
Bullpen is the best chance for a playoff run if your team doesn’t have multiple SP capable of pitching at ace levels against playoff offenses.
@case
Agreed. Given there really isn’t an available #1, having a strong bullpen (+ above average defense and offense) is going to *have* to be the plan until this off-season.
I’m guessing BAL is taking on the remainder of his salary?
7 years of relief for 2 months is a win. Buyer beware though. O’s didn’t think much of Lucas to trade him. They seem to know their pitching.
He’s also rule 5 eligible this off season and they have no room to put him on the 40. Use him or lose him
Losing Lester leaves a 40 spot
Yeah. And the have to add a bunch before the R5.
This guy is straight trash.
As opposed to gay trash?
As opposed to perpendicular trash?
Darkside
You can’t have watched him pitch all season.
10 years in the NPB says a log more then ~50 innings in the Majors. Granted, BOTH say he sucks, but not being able to hack it in one of the world’s most pitcher-friendly leagues is a massive, MASSIVE red flag.
Darkside
Not sure where you’re getting the part that he sucked in the NPB….
His record in NPB is 9.2 K/9, his K/9 in MLB is around the same, admittedly his BB/9 is a little higher than you’d want, but the guy has a good number or variety of pitches. 49 ip 51k is the reason the Orioles signed him.
Therefore, the statement that “he sucks” is flawed.
We (O’s) are getting this guy so Ohtani has someone to talk to
“Konichi-wa, b¡tç&€$!” -Ohtani walking into BAL locker room, probably.
As an A’s fan who watches regularly, I thought this was coming. Yes, the beginning was rough and he had some clunkers mixed in there but he’s been a lot more solid recently.
He can go out and pump 101mph for an inning or two – bet he’ll look good over the next couple months!
Being traded for a 26 year old minor league RP is the thing I have a problem with. He was going to be traded no matter what the second he signed a contract that only had his control for 1 year.
Man, you really have to work hard at arbitrarily slicing the stats to make him look even OK.
If we only look at his recent good outings, he’s allowed runs in 25% of them?
His problem is simple – spotty control. Goes to full counts, has to get one over the plate, grooves it, gets rocked in doing so IF he doesn’t go ahead and walk the guy. Been his calling card for a long time. If O’s fans want to have some fun with this they can start doing The Wobble when Fujinami comes on to pitch.
I’m guessing the O’s traded for him because Wei-Yin Chen’s interpreter is still on the O’s payroll….
I don’t think a Korean translator will do much good for a Japanese player…
Wei-Yin Chen is from Taiwan, not Korea
Lol, everybody is wrong!
There are too many countries to keep track of. It happens quite frequently to a lot of people. I mean, can people really tell apart someone from 1 European country from another?
All you need to keep track of is your computer/phone and where google is.
In this case, sure, but in person, it’s much harder.
I could have sworn Chen came over from the KBO, but clearly I did not recall that correctly.
everybody is Wong
thats Wright
actually Chen played in NPB. So he does speak Japanese. However I dont think he hired a Japanese- English translator with the Orioles, must have been a Chinese-English translator since he is from Taiwan. So that wont be of use to Fujinami, who does not speak Chinese.
Bi the way I am a Japanese born Japanese, who grew up in the US and Japan, and then worked in China, US and Japan.
I have never understood the phrase, “going back to” when discussing trades. Did the player come from there? No. So are they going back. It’s an East Coast sport writer bias and Heyman is surely guilty of it.
@Zack
Lucas was born and raised in California and played collegiate ball for Pepperdine. I think it’s plenty appropriate to say he’s going “back” there.
They’re just big LL Cool J fans
A few months from now we’re going to be watching the Orioles in the playoffs and marveling at their lock down bullpen. One guy after another throwing gas. These guys aren’t winning by accident. They know what they’re doing. I’ve said it before, the disparity between baseball teams isn’t between rich and poor, it’s between smart and dumb.
@Darkside
“Trash”
Said some about Felix Bautista, Jorge Lopez and Yennier Cano.
one hundred percent correct, Don
They were the worst team in baseball for a four year stretch before having a winning season last year. Let’s not get carried away with how smart the organization is.We still have no idea if the organization is able or willing to pay and keep their young talent.
Who keeps liking Samuel’s conceited diatribes ?? It must be his burner account.
That’s rich coming from a Met’s fan.
What does me having to be a Mets fan have to do with anything? Did have much to refute with that response. You do realize the Mets still have won more games in the last two years then the Orioles have?
they hired Mike Elias away from the smartest organization in MLB – that was extremely smart.
Shhh. Noone noticed they replaced all the plastic trash cans in the Camden home clubhouse with steel ones…
DonOsbourne;
The back-end of the bullpen – Cano and Bautista – have been the best in MLB. But unlike 2022, the middle relievers getting to the back-end have been inconsistent, Baumann was lights out early in the season.. Since then with the exception of a few good games he’s has blown leads. Baker cannot be depended on, and it’s amazing that Cionel Perez is still on the ML roster – they keep working with him trying to find the 2022 magic he had. Nick Vespi came up from the minors and looked interesting, but it appears then sent him back. If he can level out he’ll be back as the 2nd LH reliever behind Coulombe…or maybe DL Hall….or maybe one of the 2 other relief pitchers I expect them to bring in by the trading deadline.
The O’s pitching coaches are great with the bullpen guys. In 2023 MLB has officially become a bullpen game (teams are contending with 2 decent starters). No one expects perfection, but middle relief guys cannot let a game get out of hand very often. In looking at these silly general statistics there’s one for pitchers (starting, middle relief, back-end closers) that I believe teams keep – How often do you keep your team in the game? It’s about winning in MLB. In Rotisserie League it’s about K’s vs. W’s, MPH, ERA, FIP and other such nonsense. MLB FO’s jobs are not to have the best statistics, it’s to win more games than the other teams. A pitcher can give up a lot of runs in an appearance that hurts his overall stats. . But the issue is – Did he keep his team in the game so they chance a chance to win? I’m sure strong analytic FO’s – of which the O’s are surely one – keep those numbers. It’s why a guy like Kyle Gibson is valuable to them even though he’s a pitch-to-contact guy that often gives up a lot of runs the first few innings……but he toughens up and stops the bleeding for another 2-4 innings giving the offense a chance to come back. He may not be an ace, but only one pitcher on a team is. There used to be a cliché in MLB that’s been gone for decades – “He wins when he doesn’t have his good stuff”. Many of those pitchers were referred to as “Bulldogs”. They did enough to help their team win…and that’s what really counts.
“Breaking News: Orioles trade from minor league surplus for 2023 Rental of West Coast Japanese pitcher, news at 11.”
This is a bit underwhelming. Ready for some bigger trades for sure.
I was slightly skeptical of when my O’s brought in Aaron Hicks but so far he has been another quality move for this front office. I’ll give them some faith that they see something here worth bringing in. That being said, the question for the O’s is going to continue to be starting pitching. Personally I think they should stick to what they have until next year but being this good at this point in the season makes it certainly difficult not to pull the trigger on a big deal.
They can stick him in the pen and, if he excels, move him back to the rotation. It’s not like he isn’t stretched out.
Baltimore must see something they can fix there. Guy throws gas but seems to struggle to harness it
Ohtani… Fujinami… what’s the difference?
Ohtani can hit, Fujinami is taller
100 mph fastball and a nasty splitter, with encouraging results over the last 6 weeks or so after his rough start. Love it, now go get a solid lefty setup man!
If things don’t heat up here… may we interest you in a Hader?
Yes, actually. I was disappointed when Dan Duquette traded him away because he was a hometown guy (well, homestate guy anyway) so it would be neat to get him back, even if only for a few months.
@floch hometown brotha. Millersville high is all of 20 mins from Baltimore.
Never heard of millersville high… heard of old mill high tho
Lol good catch. Millersville Is 20 mins away is what my stupid self meant!
Josh Hader!
A young team actually supplementing their bullpen. What a concept.
As a Reds fan, what do you think the team should do? As mentioned above, if things go south here… would you care for Snell and/or Hader? Cheers bud
I think they need a bullpen arm or two to supplement an overworked bullpen, and at least one starter because we are tired of seeing Weaver throw batting practice every turn and Lodolo is probably out until September now.
The problem is they only have one series left against the Brewers and they already blew the first two with the front office doing nothing to help an overworked bullpen and weak links in the starting rotation.
As for Hader, not sure how he would like being a setup man to Diaz, but that would be a heck of a backend to the bullpen. Snell would be welcome, as would any starter with a track record at this point. I doubt though, that our GM would part with what it would take to get them.
I have said all along that I expect them to subtract (Newman, Senzel maybe for whatever they can get) instead of add. It is not like with half a dozen shortstop prospects they don’t have assets and you can’t play them all. I hope the kid GM proves me wrong.
Lucas has much much better numbers. Why the heck didn’t they give him a bullpen shot instead of bringing over this bum?
Because they have more context than just looking at both players’ season ERA.
Doesn’t just looking at a pitchers # of wins capture all you need to know about him?
Because Lucas doesn’t have the kind of stuff that makes guys knees turn to jelly.
Easton Lucas has a 4.61 ERA with a 1.39 WHIP at AAA. How does that scream “call me up” to face big league hitters?
Great move for Fuji who has pitched very well the last two months. Not so good for Lucas, although he will fit in with all the other prospects the A’s have traded for. I’m sure he’ll be happy to get a MLB shot but unfortunately it’s with the worst team and worst organization in baseball. If he does perform, he’ll get traded for another prospect. That’s the way the A’s roll.
Most players eventually get traded for prospects. That’s the way most teams roll.
Might work for both sides. What’s everyone having for lunch today? Leftover pizza for me.
Nice little move. I watched him solid over those first two months. Truly one of the most horrible transitions I’ve seen. Up close and personal he reeked of discomfort. His true skills were so hard to place. He just couldn’t find the plate at all.
This is one of those moves that there is very little harm that can happen for the O’s and even if he stinks you can quickly shut him down or cut cause of cost. But if I’m really diving deep into it and I’m an O’s fan, I’d be a bit puzzled why we’d do this trade. Baseball is random but we rely on the overall data to project how likely a player will performance going forward. Fuji has really never been that good even in his Japanese years. Lucas actually seems like a decent guy to give an opportunity or better yet, package him with another prospect to go get a better, more consistent bullpen arm or to address another need (which I don’t think their biggest need is the bullpen). The A’s offload cash, which 1.3 mil to them is apparently billions in gold lol, and get solid prospect to tinker with. To me, A’s look really good here, O’s just look meh. In my humble worthless opinion.
bravesfan;
What did the data project Cano and Bautista to be?
Middle relief pitchers are truly a crapshoot. Even those that have good years regress the next – as has happened to the Orioles bullpen this year.
The O’s did not bring Fujinami in with the idea that he’s here to save the bullpen. They know there’s a very good chance he washes out – which is why he’ll hardly be their only bullpen acquisition going into the trade deadline (and beyond). This is not happenstance. Am sure O’s have looked at Fujinami’s analytics, studied videos of performances, analyzed his game from multiple perspectives, and have an idea of how their coaches can work with him to be more productive (no one expects him to be a lights-out closer). They’re taking a flyer on him as they will a few other relief pitchers. Hopefully one or two will right themselves and help the O’s in 2023.
You may find this hard to believe, but the A’s are not known for running a pitching factory.
The A’s need to trade any rental with value but idk how the O’s look bad. They got a guy ahead of the deadline who throws gas that they can work with.
For the cost of 26 year old left handed reliever who just graduated from AA.
Pittsburgh, Cleveland etc are irrelevant to this conversation because they do not control anything in those larger, neighboring markets. The Orioles do. You conveniently leave out Washington’s size. Which some list the market itself as 8th, others 9th. It’s not “some revenue”. Baltimore controls over two thirds of that. Doesn’t matter why. Point is they do. The rights fee fight with the Nationals? MASN has to payout EQUAL amounts to both clubs. The amount the Nats are fighting for has to come out of the Angelos’ pockets and a matching amount goes to the two clubs. The MASN entity was valued by Forbes as slightly more valuable than the Orioles themselves. Its not “some revenue”. This is not a broke club.
Forbes has the Orioles 18th valued at 1.7 billion. The only MASN money included in that valuation is what rights fees got paid out to the club. Two thirds of the MASN value brings them to about 3 billion, which would be 6th on the list. The latest MASN decision has the MASN entity paying the Nationals and Orioles EACH 100MM in back payments for the 2012 to 2016 seasons. That’s more than double the O’s estimated profit from last year. And once the club receives payment, it gets calculated into the MLB revenue sharing scheme. The Angeloses can put it into the roster, or share it with Pittsburgh. Which would you choose? Nats are looking at option c: take the money and run, by exploring a sale of their club.
It’s telling just how much money the Orioles gain from this arrangement as the DC market is the 8th or 9th largest, but the Nationals valuation from Forbes is 16th. Again the only MASN money in either valuation is what is paid out in rights fees. So the numbers show the Nats drop, but not the Orioles gain because the money stays under the MASN umbrella. The Angelos family intentionally muted the rights fee payouts to keep the money in their control outside of MLBs revenue oversight, and separate from their clubs books. According to the Nationals court filings, MASN stopped paying out rights fees in 2018 as a response to the ligation. If that’s true, both clubs could be looking at yet another substantial influx of cash from back payments.
End of the day, call them whatever kind of market you want. They’ve spent 140M+ before, in seasons with less revenue than the current one. They have, and can, spend the money. Elias said from day one he was going to build a young core and spend around it when the time is right. That time is now.
He’s been better as of late, and it seems like the Orioles have been able to get success out of high velocity project pitchers as of late. I actually kind like this transaction, decent upside for a guy they probably weren’t going to protect from the Rule V Draft. Hope it works out for the Os and Fuji!
Fujinami- can’t spell fun without him
The Orioles picked up an Asian rental from the AL West! For some reason I can only think of Major League II when they picked up an outfielder from the Giants. Brown names a few and is then told “not those Giants.” – “not that rental.”
He’s a middle reliever (your guess is as good as mine as to whether he will be effective but it really isn’t costing much to find out) and won’t be jumping on top of the OF wall to catch fly balls. Maybe he’ll make sure his teammates have “marbles.” and set off a sudden winning streak.
On a serious note, is something up with Vespi? He looked decent when he was up earlier in the year.
Shame… some CBS dude walked around the A’s stadium and looked at the names on jerseys worn by fans… Fujinami was the only 1 that was a current A.
Philly-I saw that video. He walked nearly all the way through the stadium before he found one. So bad that they’ve mistreated their fans to this extent especially given the glory days the A’s had in the 70s and 1988-90.
@phillyballers
That’s really a sad situation. Gotta feel for the A’s fans.