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Darren O'Day

Braves Select Darren O’Day, Place Luke Jackson On 60-Day IL

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The Braves have announced that they have selected the contract of reliever Darren O’Day, who they had signed to a minor league deal in November. To make room on the 40-man roster, fellow reliever Luke Jackson was placed on the 60-day IL. Additionally, Kyle Muller was optioned to Triple-A.

O’Day, 39, is a veteran side-arming righty who made his MLB debut with the Angels back in 2008. After spending some time with the Mets and Rangers, he landed with the Orioles and stayed for his longest stretch with any one club, spending seven seasons in Baltimore from 2012 to 2018. He then spent two seasons with Atlanta before donning Yankee pinstripes last year, and will now rejoin the Braves this year.

Over his 587 1/3 career innings, he holds an ERA of 2.53, strikeout rate of 25.8% and walk rate of 6.8%, all excellent numbers. However, he was limited to just 10 2/3 innings last year due to various injuries. He had a player option that could have kept him in the Bronx this year with a $1.4MM salary, but he chose the $700K buyout instead. His deal with the Braves will guarantee him $1MM, meaning that he earned himself an extra $300K by opting for the buyout.

As for Jackson, his IL placement isn’t terribly surprising after yesterday’s news that he may require Tommy John surgery. Although that surgery is not yet guaranteed, this move assures that he will be out of action for at least a couple of months. The 30-year-old had a tremendous breakout season last year, throwing 63 2/3 innings of 1.98 ERA ball, helping the club win the NL West and eventually hoist the World Series trophy. Unfortunately, he won’t be able to build on that campaign due to this injury. The club has bolstered their bullpen this offseason with the additions of Collin McHugh and Kenley Jansen. With Jackson landing on the shelf, O’Day will step in as yet another veteran presence.

Braves, Darren O’Day Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Braves have agreed to a minor league contract with veteran reliever Darren O’Day, reports MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (via Twitter). Presumably, the Ballengee Group client will be in Major League Spring Training and hope to secure a roster spot in what would be a return bid with Atlanta.

O’Day, 39, signed a one-year deal with the Yankees back in January.  He was limited to only 10 2/3 innings in 2021 due to a rotator cuff strain as well as a season-ending hamstring injury that required surgery in July.  Despite the injury, O’Day chose a $700K buyout over his $1.4MM player option with the Yankees.  O’Day will make a $1MM salary if he’s in the Majors, according to ESPN’s Buster Olney, so he still has a chance to come out ahead.

O’Day, a side-arming righty, is a 14-year MLB veteran with a 2.53 ERA in 587 1/3 career innings.  He began his pro career as an undrafted free agent back in 2006, joining the Mets’ bullpen in 2009 as a Rule 5 pick from the Angels.  He was quickly claimed by the Rangers and ascended to the club’s setup job in short order.  After a lost 2011 season that included hip surgery, O’Day joined the Orioles on a waiver claim.  He went on to post a 1.92 ERA over the next four seasons, making the 2015 All-Star game and landing a four-year, $31MM contract to remain with Baltimore.

At the 2018 trade deadline – with O’Day out for the season due to hamstring surgery and still owed $9MM in 2019 – the Orioles shipped him to Atlanta as a salary dump along with Kevin Gausman.  Though O’Day only pitched 21 2/3 innings for Atlanta from 2019-20 due to injuries, he must have enjoyed his time there.  O’Day hasn’t topped 20 innings in a season since 2017.  He was death on righties in his heyday, but had difficulties with lefties even back then.  Specialists can be difficult to employ in the three-batter minimum era, but O’Day will have a crack at joining Atlanta’s 2022 bullpen.  The current Braves pen includes Tyler Matzek, Will Smith, A.J. Minter, and Luke Jackson, plus the recently-acquired Jay Jackson.  Richard Rodriguez, with a potential arbitration salary north of $3MM, is a threat to be non-tendered or traded by tomorrow’s non-tender deadline.

Brett Gardner, Darren O’Day Reach Free Agency

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The Yankees announced this evening that both outfielder Brett Gardner and reliever Darren O’Day have reached free agency. Both players had contracts with player options that they each declined. Their respective deals allowed the Yankees to bring back either player by then exercising a pricier club option, but the team decided not to do so in either case.

It’s the second consecutive offseason in which the Yankees have declined an option on Gardner. Last winter, the club opted to buy the veteran out rather than bring him back for $10MM. After a few months on the open market, the career-long Yankee returned to the Bronx on a complex deal that paid him a $2.85MM salary in 2021. The contract contained a $2.3MM player option for 2022. Were Gardner to decline, the Yankees were left to decide between exercising a $7.15MM club option or buying him out for $1.15MM.

Both sides have chosen to decline their end, meaning Gardner will collect the buyout figure and hit the open market. This again raises the possibility that Gardner could land elsewhere after spending the past fourteen seasons in a Yankee uniform. It’s certainly still possible New York and Gardner’s reps at Meister Sports Management look to hammer out a new agreement that lands somewhere in between the respective values of the player and club options, but he’ll now be free to explore opportunities with other teams as well.

The 2021 campaign was something of a mixed bag for Gardner, who likely wound up thrust into a bigger role than the team had envisioned. With Aaron Hicks suffering a season-ending injury in May, the 38-year-old Gardner stepped in as the Yankees’ primary center fielder. Both Statcast’s Outs Above Average and Defensive Runs Saved tabbed him as a roughly average center fielder, no small feat for a player his age.

Gardner’s production on the other side of the ball dipped, though, as he posted his worst hitting numbers since 2018. Over 461 plate appearances, the left-handed batter put up a .222/.327/.362 line with 10 homers. Gardner still walked in a fantastic 13% of his trips and struck out less often than average, but he’s posted low batting averages on balls in play for the last few seasons and the 28 homers he popped in 2019 looks like an outlier after back-to-back down power years.

While Gardner has spent his entire career in pinstripes, O’Day’s time in the Bronx might last just one season. The veteran submariner signed a free agent deal with a similar structure as Gardner’s last winter, albeit at a lesser sum. His contract paid a $1.75MM salary in 2021 and came with a $1.4MM player option for 2022. Once O’Day declined his end, the Yankees were left to decide whether to bring him back for $3.15MM or buy him out for $700K.

O’Day’s time with the Yankees didn’t go according to plan, as he was limited to 10 2/3 innings by injuries, including a left hamstring strain that ended his season in early July. Now 39 years old and coming off an injury-wrecked season, O’Day is looking at another low-cost deal this winter. Still, he seems likely to top the $700K gap between his buyout figure and the player option salary, so he’ll hit the open market in search of other opportunities. When healthy, O’Day has consistently been productive, posting a sub-4.00 ERA in every year since 2011.

Darren O’Day’s Season Likely Over After “Significant” Hamstring Injury

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TODAY: O’Day will likely miss the rest of the season, Boone told Newsday’s Erik Boland and other reporters today.

JULY 8: Last night, the Yankees placed reliever Darren O’Day on the 10-day injured list due to a left hamstring strain. Manager Aaron Boone provided an update this morning, telling reporters (including Randy Miller of NJ Advance Media) it appears to be a “significant” injury. O’Day, who suffered the injury during a recent pregame workout, was sent for an MRI.

The news is particularly concerning given the righty’s history. O’Day underwent season-ending surgery to repair a strain in the same hamstring while with the Orioles in 2018. Until the MRI results come back, it won’t be known whether he’ll require a similar procedure this time around, but it unfortunately seems there’s a possibility he’ll require an extended absence.

It’s the second major injury O’Day has dealt with this season. He suffered a right rotator cuff strain that landed him on the IL in early May and had only just returned last week. That has kept the veteran submariner to 10 2/3 innings of 3.38 ERA ball this season. When healthy, O’Day has generally been highly effective. He was one of the game’s best set-up men for much of his time in Baltimore and pitched to a 1.25 ERA/2.60 FIP across 21 2/3 frames with the Braves between 2019-20.

If the hamstring injury winds up costing O’Day much or all of the remainder of the season, he’ll be faced with a tougher decision this winter. The 38-year-old signed a one-year guarantee with the Yankees in late January that contained a $1.4MM player option ($700K buyout) for 2022. O’Day would’ve been highly likely to decline his end of the deal with a healthy, typical season but a significant injury might change that decision. If O’Day declines his end of the option, the Yankees can trigger a $3.15MM club option to keep the righty in the fold next year.

Yankees Activate Luke Voit

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Yankees first baseman Luke Voit has been activated from the injured list, the team announced Tuesday. Additionally, right-hander Darren O’Day and lefty Justin Wilson both embarked on rehab assignments with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. First baseman Chris Gittens was optioned after the Yankees’ game on Sunday, so the team had a vacancy on the active roster.

Voit, 30, has appeared in just 12 games so far in 2021. A torn meniscus required surgery and pushed his season debut back to May 11, and he went down with an oblique strain just two weeks later. That injury ultimately kept him on the shelf for just shy of a month.

Last summer’s Major League leader with 22 home runs, Voit showed some definite signs of rust in his first stint with the Yankees this year. He came out of the gates with an 0-for-10 skid and posted an overall line of .182/.280/.250 in 50 plate appearances before going down with his second injury. He’s looked much better on a rehab stint split between Double-A and Triple-A this time around, going 8-for-19 with a pair of homers and a pair of doubles in 20 plate appearances.

First base has been a black hole in the lineup at Yankee Stadium this season. Yankees who’ve been penciled into the first base position this year have combined for a miserable .176/.263/.285 slash in 267 plate appearances. DJ LeMahieu has seen the bulk of the playing time at first base, but while he’s hitting .259/.333/.352 on the season as a whole, he’s at just .234/.303/.324 as a first baseman. Voit, Jay Bruce, Mike Ford, Chris Gittens and Miguel Andujar have all seen time at the position as well, without much to show for it.

A healthy Voit would be a major boost for the Yankees, who are currently tied with the Marlins for the fifth-fewest runs in baseball (281). Voit not only led the Majors with 22 long balls last season, he batted a combined .279/.372/.549 with 57 homers in 892 plate appearances from the time of his 2018 acquisition from the Cardinals through the completion of the 2020 campaign. Meanwhile, the Yankees have posted a middling .232/.315/.389 batting line as a team in 2644 plate appearances this year.

Yankees Place Darren O’Day On Injured List

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11:34 am: O’Day will be shut down from throwing for a few weeks, manager Aaron Boone told reporters (including Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News).

9:15 am: The Yankees are placing righty reliever Darren O’Day on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to April 30, with a right rotator cuff strain, the team announced. Fellow righty Michael King has been recalled from the alternate training site in a corresponding move.

New York signed O’Day to bolster their already-strong bullpen over the winter. The submariner enjoyed a pair of highly-productive seasons with the Braves from 2019-20 and has continued to pitch well (albeit not quite at his Atlanta level) in New York. O’Day has made ten appearances and worked nine innings, allowing three runs on eight hits (including a homer) and a pair of walks with nine strikeouts. The team did not provide a timetable for his potential return.

With O’Day on the shelf, the Yankees bring back King, who has gone back-and-forth between Yankee Stadium and the alternate training site over the past two seasons. Altogether, King has compiled a 5.22 ERA/4.42 SIERA over 39.2 MLB innings. The 25-year-old has yet to allow a run through eleven frames of long relief this year, but his ordinary strikeout and walk rates (21.4% and 9.5%, respectively) are virtually unchanged from last season.

The Yankees are off to a 12-14 start, but that underwhelming performance hasn’t been the fault of the bullpen. New York relievers have league-best marks in ERA (2.24), SIERA (2.90) and K% minus BB% (22.7 points).

Yankees, Darren O’Day Agree To Deal

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12:48pm: O’Day receives a $1.75MM salary for the upcoming season and has a $1.4MM player option with a $700K buyout, tweets Joel Sherman of the New York Post. He’ll actually make the first decision, and if he opts for the buyout, the Yankees then have a $3.15MM club option over the righty.

Technically, because O’Day is guaranteed this year’s $1.75MM salary and that $1.4MM player option, one could call this a $3.15MM guarantee over a two-year term. However, since only the buyout is technically factored into the guarantee under the luxury tax, it’s a one-year, $2.45MM deal for luxury purposes. Ultimately, if O’Day pitches well enough to decline that player option but still have the club option exercised, it seems he can earn a total of $5.6MM between 2021-22.

12:33pm: O’Day’s contract is a one-year deal that contains both a player option and a club option, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. (Presumably, the Yankees will have the option to pick up O’Day’s 2022 season at a set price and, if declined, he can opt into a second season at a lower rate.) He’s guaranteed a total of $2.5MM in 2021, Heyman adds.

12:22pm: The Yankees are in agreement on a contract with free-agent righty Darren O’Day, reports Lindsey Adler of The Athletic (via Twitter). O’Day, represented by the Ballengee Group, still needs to pass a physical before the deal is finalized.

The 38-year-old O’Day will add a seasoned veteran to an already formidable Yankees bullpen. Most expected O’Day to be back with the Braves in 2021, given an affordable club option on his contract, but Atlanta made the surprising decision to pay him a $500K buyout rather than pay him a $3.5MM salary in 2021. For a reliever coming off 16 1/3 innings of 1.10 ERA ball eight hits and five walks allowed against 22 strikeouts, that seemed to be an eminently reasonable price tag. Heyman adds that the Braves and Phillies finished runner-up to the Yankees in their efforts to sign O’Day.

O’Day wasn’t only strong in 2020, of course. The sidearming righty has a length track record of being a high-quality setup piece, dating all the way back to a breakout 2009 with the Rangers. He’s dealt with injuries in recent years, requiring IL stints for elbow, shoulder and hamstring injuries since 2016, but whenever he’s on the field O’Day has been effective. Since 2012, he’s only turned in three seasons with an ERA north of 3.00 — never higher than 2016’s 3.77 in that span — while putting together a composite 2.34 ERA with a 28.6 percent strikeout rate against an impressive 6.8 percent walk rate.

New York’s recent trade of Adam Ottavino to the Red Sox surely paved the way for this move. Prior to shedding the bulk of Ottavino’s salary, the Yankees were pressed right up to the precipice of a luxury-tax barrier that ownership is said to be unwilling to cross. That trade, however, cleared $8.15MM of luxury obligations (in exchange for Ottavino and prospect Frank German, who was effectively sold to Boston in the swap). Some of that resulting flexibility will now go to O’Day — a veteran reliever himself who, like Ottavino, gives right-handed opponents fits (career .193/.262/.287).

The Yankees also reportedly circled back with longtime outfielder Brett Gardner at some point last week and still have some interest in bringing him back — likely as a reserve, given a rather full outfield slate as it is. If Gardner is willing to take a similar guarantee to that of O’Day, he could slot into a bench role and still leave the Yankees a few million dollars of breathing room, relative to the luxury threshold, for in-season dealings.

Braves Decline Darren O’Day’s Option

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The Braves have turned down right-handed reliever Darren O’Day’s $3.5MM club option for 2021 in favor of a $500K buyout, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports. O’Day is now the second notable reliever to have a team decline his option today, joining the Indians’ Brad Hand, who could earn $10MM in 2021 if another club acquires him.

While O’Day isn’t as noteworthy or expensive as Hand, it’s nonetheless surprising to see the Braves give him up. With the league coming off a pandemic-shortened season sans fans, though, these moves could be a sign of negative things to come for the players this winter. It seems relievers will face some economic adversity in free agency, but it’s possible the open market will prove to be disappointing for most or all players, regardless of position.

No matter how free agency does shake out across the league, O’Day currently looks like one of the most accomplished relievers on the open market. Despite averaging around 86 mph on his fastball throughout his career, O’Day has been highly effective with a handful of teams since he debuted in 2008. The longtime Oriole owns a 2.51 ERA/3.43 FIP with 9.36 K/9 and 2.47 BB/9 in 576 2/3 innings in the majors.

The Braves acquired O’Day from the O’s in the 2018 season, but his year had already ended on account of a hamstring issue. Anthony injury, this time to his forearm, kept O’Day out until September of last season, but he was able to end on a positive note with five strong innings. The Braves then re-signed O’Day to a guaranteed $2.5MM last winter, and he went on to deliver in 2020 with 16 1/3 innings of eight-hit, three-run ball, also notching 22 strikeouts against five walks. But that excellent performance was not enough to convince the Braves to keep O’Day around for what looked like a reasonable sum.

Braves Re-Sign Darren O’Day

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The Braves have re-signed veteran reliever Darren O’Day, per a club announcement. He’ll receive a guarantee of $2.25MM in the contract, which covers the 2020 campaign and includes a $3.5MM club option for another season.

As other clubs plot roster turnover for the winter, the Braves have acted quickly to retain several pieces at the outset of the market. Backstop Tyler Flowers and Nick Markakis were already signed to new deals to remain in Atlanta for one more season, and they’ll now be joined by O’Day for a total outlay of just over $10MM in 2020 payroll.

O’Day, who recently celebrated his 37th birthday, was acquired at the 2018 trade deadline but didn’t appear with the Braves until September of 2019. He dealt with hamstring and forearm issues after coming over from the Orioles.

Though the Braves received only a brief look at the veteran reliever late in the season, he obviously impressed. O’Day was included on the postseason roster and appeared in four of the team’s NLDS contests. All told, he allowed just one earned run in 7 1/3 innings while compiling eight strikeouts against one free pass and four base hits.

O’Day averaged less than 87 mph with his fastball upon his return, though that’s actually only a tick lower than his career average. The sidearming hurler didn’t have any trouble getting swings and misses in that short sample, with an 18.0% swinging-strike rate in his 5 1/3 regular season frames. His full-season career-high in that metric is 14.8%, back in 2015.

It’s a fairly low-cost bet for the Braves, who’ll add O’Day to a high-leverage mix that already features Mark Melancon — another veteran hurler with exceptional command who has had stretches of dominance followed by some recent rough patches. It’d be too much to hope for these experienced righties to return to the levels of dominance they posted a few years back, but there’s good reason to believe there’s gas left in both tanks.

While fans may pine for a dominant closer, it may be that the Braves now consider their bullpen fully accounted for. The organization can tender Shane Greene and hope for a bounceback, while crossing its fingers that Luke Jackson can make the results match his newly eye-popping peripherals. Grant Dayton reemerged late to join Sean Newcomb as options from the left side. And there’s a laundry list of less-established hurlers that have seen recent MLB action and/or impressed of late in the upper minors.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Braves Activate Darren O’Day

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The Braves have activated right-hander Darren O’Day from the 60-day injured list.  The team created a 40-man roster spot by recalling catcher Alex Jackson from Triple-A and then placing Jackson the 60-day IL himself, ending his 2019 season.  Outfielder Adam Duvall was also called up from Triple-A.

O’Day is in position to make his first appearance in a Braves uniform, and his first MLB appearance of any kind since June 26 when the veteran reliever was still a member of the Orioles bullpen.  O’Day underwent hamstring surgery a few days after that last outing, but was still dealt to Atlanta as part of a six-player deal at the 2018 trade deadline, as O’Day’s inclusion was largely just a salary dump on Baltimore’s part.  After suffering forearm problems in Spring Training, however, O’Day has missed all of the 2019 season, and only returned to minor league action on August 23 for the first of four rehab outings.

One of the game’s most underrated relievers from 2012-15, O’Day’s numbers took a step back from outstanding in those four seasons to merely solid over the next three.  While he still delivered a 3.56 ERA, 3.44 K/BB rate, and 11/4 K/9 over 111 1/3 IP for the Orioles in 2016-18, O’Day was also plagued by the long ball, as his HR/9 spiked to a 1.4 average over those three seasons.  It doesn’t necessarily auger well for a pitcher entering the homer-crazy 2019 baseball season, especially one coming back after over a year’s absence.

Since the Braves do have a healthy seven-game lead in the NL East, however, the team has the flexibility to work O’Day back into the mix in low-pressure situations.  If he reveals any of his old form, he could even be a darkhorse contender to earn a spot on Atlanta’s postseason roster.  The Braves’ bullpen has been something of a question mark for much of the season, though the trade deadline additions of Shane Greene and Mark Melancon have helped stabilize matters (after some initial bumps).  If nothing else, O’Day is hoping for a strong finish to give him some kind of jumping-off point as he enters the free agent market this winter.

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