Kyle Finnegan is one of the top remaining relievers in a thinning free agent market. The righty somewhat surprisingly hit free agency when the Nationals opted not to tender him a contract for his final season of arbitration. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz had projected the All-Star for an $8.6MM salary.
That’s a price the Nats were unwilling to pay. Washington has seemingly had interest in bringing Finnegan back at a lesser number. The sides reportedly had some conversations before the non-tender. General manager Mike Rizzo told reporters on Thursday that the Nats have “been talking to Finnegan throughout the offseason” about a potential reunion (link via Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com). There’s evidently still a financial gap. Rizzo declined to specify what kind of contract has been discussed beyond noting that “it takes two to tango.”
Finnegan has topped 60 innings with a sub-4.00 ERA in four consecutive seasons. He has been Dave Martinez’s primary closer for most of that time, recording 88 career saves. That includes a career-high 38 saves in 43 attempts last year. Only Ryan Helsley and Emmanuel Clase locked down more games. Finnegan concluded the season with a 3.68 earned run average across 63 2/3 innings.
Despite the gaudy save total, Finnegan’s peripherals were about average. He struck out 22.1% of opponents against an 8.9% walk rate. His 10.8% swinging strike percentage was a bit below the 11.6% league mark for relievers. That combined with a rough second half to lead the Nationals to non-tender him. Finnegan carried a 2.45 ERA and 26.1% strikeout rate into the All-Star Break. He lost nearly 10 percentage points off the strikeout rate while allowing 5.79 earned runs per nine after that.
That didn’t come with any kind of velocity drop. The 33-year-old averaged 97 MPH on his fastball in each month of the season. Opponents make a lot of hard contact against the heater, though, and they had increasing success differentiating the pitch from his splitter as the year progressed.
The Nats haven’t done much to address the bullpen. In addition to cutting Finnegan, they traded Robert Garcia to Texas for first baseman Nathaniel Lowe. They added Jorge López on a $3MM free agent deal. Japanese southpaw Shinnosuke Ogasawara could pitch in long relief, while Rule 5 pick Evan Reifert is trying to hold a middle relief job. Washington could certainly use more stability in a late-innings mix led by López, Jose A. Ferrer and Derek Law. Righty David Robertson is the top unsigned reliever, while Andrew Chafin and Phil Maton are among the next tier.
Dodgers called. They need another reliever.
This guy doesn’t even qualify as depth for them.
Agreed, if the Dodgers DFA Brasier, then no way Finnegan would make the roster.
But they’re only offering IOU’s apparently
Has he returned their call?
I’m hoping he’s demanding sasakis Japan start since he’s refusing deferrals.
$8.6m for a 4.20 FIP, 2022-2024, 4.58 in 2023, 4.25 in 2024; a bad HR rate every year for a late-inning arm, tolerable but not good control?
How did negotiations go…? “$8.6 seems a little high, Kyle. We were thinking more like… 2.”
His save total only shows that if you stick a slightly above average arm with good durability in the closer role, a gaudy saves number tends to follow. Last I looked the average bullpen arm gets 96% of the saves the typical closer nails down when handed a 3-run lead. .
I recall thinking several times he needed a four run lead just so I could relax.
When Dombrowski was in Detroit, he couldn’t put together a bullpen. Lots of pitchers were tried and failed. Forget all the other numbers, Finnegan is able to handle the closers role. Many can’t. Maybe he doesn’t get the k’s you’d like. He’s effective, which is all that matters.
Sorry but there’s more to it than that. Kyle has a great closer’s mentality and takes the ball every time he’s asked. There’s a reason his performance dropped in the second half: Davey pitched his arm off. I believe he pitched four days in a row once. They need to bring him back on a 3 year deal for $15 m. Let him close now and transition to a setup role. Though, like a lot of closers, he pitches best in the 9th and not as great in non save situations.
Absolutely agree with Baseball Babe. Closing is a mentality not just numbers. Finnegan has proven he can do it and the Nats don’t have anyone right now to do it. Lopez has done it before, but he’s also crumbled there, too. Working it out with Kyle makes sense for both of them.
The Nationals will have to get substantial improvements from their defense and bullpen to return to contention. Maybe they get their preferred price with Finnegan, but he was part of a relief corps that was bottom 5 in 2024.
If they really want to improve the pen, try and sign Robertson and Maton on 1 year deals for a combined $10 million or less. Otherwise, that group of arms looks like they’ll be giving away wins all season.
Christmas cards. Flowers on Valentine’s Day. Occasional email. Gift cards to Starbucks. The Nats are so nice to “stay in touch”.
I think the first sentence of the last paragraph is too long. The period should come after the word much.
I think your second sentence should have used quotation marks with the word “much.” Its a bit “much” that you come to a baseball site to critique grammar.
I think his joke just went over your head. “The Nats haven’t done much”. That’s where the sentence should have ended and it would have sufficed. He wasn’t being the grammar police that you tried to call out.
The Nats made a decision–that’s a lot of money for the results and analytics you produced. He didn’t like their counter. He became a free agent….and the didn’t get an offer good enough to sign elsewhere. That validates the Nats position. I hope they come to an agreement, but can’t fault the team for making a value judgment that the rest of the league agreed with.
Saves are a big part of the arb salary for relief pitchers. Finnegan got a lot of saves along with plenty of innings, inflating his arb salary. Free agent markets are more about peripherals these days and his are average