Righty Brad Keller elected free agency after being waived by the Red Sox, tweets Chris Cotillo of MassLive. Boston designated Keller for assignment on Tuesday when they called up Rich Hill.
It’s a repeat of the process that played out two weeks ago. Keller elected free agency on August 13 rather than accept an optional assignment to Triple-A, the right of any player with at least five years of service time. He very quickly re-signed with Boston on a minor league contract and was called back up on Monday. Keller logged four innings of relief that night, allowing five runs on seven hits and a pair of walks. Boston swapped him out for Hill the next day.
The 29-year-old Keller has split this season between the White Sox and Red Sox. He has absorbed 41 1/3 innings over 16 appearances, generally working in low-leverage relief. Opponents have tagged him for a 5.44 ERA behind nearly two home runs per nine innings. Keller’s 16.7% strikeout rate is well below average. He’s getting grounders at a strong 50% clip, but opponents have done a lot of damage when they’ve gotten the ball elevated.
Keller has never had a strong strikeout and walk profile. His calling card has been his ability to keep the ball on the ground. That translated into serviceable back-of-the-rotation numbers for the Royals, for whom he posted a 4.27 ERA over six seasons. Keller’s final season in K.C. was a disaster, as he walked a staggering 21.3% of batters faced. The Royals eventually announced that he’d been diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome.
The Sox could again try to bring Keller back on a non-roster deal. He’s had some success this year in Triple-A, combining for a 3.52 ERA over 46 innings between Chicago’s and Boston’s affiliates. Keller has started nine of 12 appearances in the minors and can serve as rotation or long relief depth wherever he lands.
How many times do they need to release him for Keller to get the hint?
They are determined to not allow Fitts a chance in ’24, giving chance after chance to the same discards. Hopefully Rodriquez and now Keller will take their garbage show to another organization for good. Both got old a long time ago.
I’m not sure Fitts was ready until now. Couldn’t have been worse than some of these retreads, though.
john – Did you watch Francis last night? Now THAT is a real pitcher.
In his last two games he’s pitched 15 innings and allowed just 2 combined hits and just one combined run ….. all while throwing no more than 92-93 MPH.
In his last 7 games he’s got a 1.58 ERA and 0.53 WHIP
He’s proof you don’t need to throw upper 90’s all the time to be an effective MLB pitcher. Hopefully the Red Sox organization took notice.
tff – They keep offering him a minor league assignment though, which is a good fallback if no other team offers him a major league contract.
It’s worked out well so far, he keeps getting called up by the Red Sox. Maybe he will be the 14th pitcher when rosters expand Sunday?
It’s actually not a terrible strategy for the team. Use the 8th spot in the pen to cycle up fungible arms, get a few innings, then release them. It is one way to take the load off the better arms in the pen.
You notice Cora is again using multiple inning stints? That’s the other way to fix the problem.
Put together, the bullpen appears to be recovering (those who didn’t get injured from the workload). Too bad the season is toast.
tff – It certainly helps that Slaten is back, with Liam right around the corner.
They need to take 2 of 3 from the Tigers, it’s okay if they lose the Skubal game.
Of course, the bullpen is always going to be better if it includes better arms.
But whether or not you have those better arms, you still have to utilize them in a way to cover the innings without those arms falling off. And that requires multiple-inning stints. For a month coming out of the All-Star Break, the Red Sox almost completely got away from that, and the results suffered.
Remember when I suggested that all Weissert needed was a little break? A three-week stint on the DL and he is effective again. Hardly a world-beater, but effective. Five walks in 5.2 IP in the second half of July was a real red flag.
Can’t ride marginal arms hard or you get nothing from them.
tff – I totally agree about the bullpen usage!
With regard to Weissert, let’s see how he does.
He got roughed up quite a bit in his second game back against Houston (2 hits, 1 walk, 1 Wild Pitch in just 2/3 of an inning) and against the lowly Jays he gave up 3 hits and a walk in less than 3 innings.
You should have seen the great defensive play he made though, came very close to starting a triple play!
Weissert isn’t a world-beater, just a guy who when used right can give you solid innings in middle relief. Not somebody I ever want to see in a one-run game. 🙂
He reminds me a bit of Schreiber, both very vulnerable to lefties. Schreiber is a touch better, though.
Ha, ha, you got replaced by a 44 year old man who wasn’t even in organized baseball a month ago.
Wasn’t he coaching his son’s little league team? So still a part of some sort of organized ball 🙂
Hill looked pretty good last night, just saying.
He would be the third best hitter in the Mariners lineup. Jerry Sign This Man!
Remember when Theo wined and dines free agent Curt Schilling in the 2003-04 off season? IIRC, they spent Thanksgiving together.
Breslow needs to do the same this year. Maybe with Corbin Burnes?
Corbin Burnes has been getting smoked lately. 21 earned runs in his last 25.2 innings. Not sure if I want him. Not sure who would be a good free agent pitcher to pursue.
Ace pitching peaks in their late 20s. Looking at the 2000-2023 time frame, there were 59 pitchers who managed a +10 WAR between the ages of 27-29. There were just 29 who managed a +10 WAR between the ages of 30-32. And of course not all of the names on the second list were on the first list.
The funny thing is that the rate of attrition levels off after the age of 32. There are 11 pitchers with a +10 WAR from the age of 32-34 and again 11 pitchers with a +10 WAR from the age of 35-37. Some randomness in the data, but the rate of attrition clearly slows from 32 onward.
Burnes has been one of the top pitchers in the game over the last three years, indisputably an ace. But based on the historical record, there is only a 50% chance that he will maintain that over the next three years. Yet he’s going to get a top-dollar guarantee for 6+ seasons?
I don’t have the answer to this, but when signing top pitchers who hit free agency at the end of their age 29 season, there are at least as many deals that work out poorly as there are ones which work out well.
All in – agreed! The Red Sox knocked the crap out of Burnes (8 earned runs). I am frankly tired of signing free agents to $25,000,000+ contracts only to have them DL for most of their time with the Red Sox (Sale 2020, 2021, 2022 – Story 2022, 2023, 2024).
It takes longer to develop players yourself, but the rookies and second year players this year have performed very well, and 4 of the Red Sox top 5 prospects are now in AAA Worcester due to arrive next season….
tff17 & MLB-1971: Great posts. I doubt the Red Sox will pay Scott Boras’ asking price for Burnes.
It makes more sense (and cents) to trade for or bring in a lot of young high upside talent (that is cheap), so you can hopefully hit on a few heading into the 27-29 age group than to get stuck on a guy for 4 to 6 years make $25,000,000 per year or more who be next money pit.
Sandlin, Slaten, Fitts, Priester are all interesting pitchers the Red Sox traded for with some upside and 7 years of controllability at MLB minimum and arbitration. Add to these Dobbins, Perales, Wikelman Gonzalez and the other draft and IFAs, and the Red Sox have an up and coming pitching staff.
Instead of paying $25 million+ per season, the Red Sox should get a mid level starter or two to supplement Bello, Crawford, Houck and the up and coming pitchers that are beginning to arrive from the farm system.
MLB: Agreed. I think the Red Sox are going to avoid long, expensive contracts for older free agents, especially for pitching. Those contracts bust too often.