Tuesday - Doolittle and the NL East

The Nats didn't stop signing people, yesterday bringing in old friend Sean Doolittle. Like a lot of Nats relievers (Clippard, Storen, Soriano, Treinen, Kelley) people tend to forget the good and remember the bad. I don't know why I guess a reliever that isn't outright dominant is like a good umpire - you don't notice them. But Doolittle was good for the Nats more than he was bad.  He excelled for the remainder of the season he was traded over (2017), the complete next season, and through nearly mid-August of the Championship year. But the Nats bullpen was ridden extremely hard that season and Doolittle broke in the dog days of 2019. He managed to come back to throw some decent innings but if possible the Nats kept him out of important situations.  The exception being holding down the fort at the end of Game 1 of the World Series after Hudson, himself stretched into a second inning, had given up a run and left a man on second, with two outs in the eighth. 

Anyway Doolittle tried unsuccessfully to get right in the pandemic year then signed with Cincinnati and pitched middling until he was waived, where he was snatched up by the Mariners to do the same.  He is still very good against LHB but the "No LOOGYs" rule means the opportunities to use that to your advantage are limited. He could fit into this pen, but that's more telling of this pen than of Doolittle's potential to be good again. 

 

As pointed out yesterday the Nats also brought in Aaron Sanchez a former highly touted arm who broke, then stunk, then got hurt again, then pitched a little for the Giants with good results then got hurt again. The guy is not an injury risk, he's an injury certainty. But maybe he can give the Nats a month or two of better 4/5 starting then they are looking at now. Maybe. Look the staff is a mess. 

The rest of the NL East has not exactly stayed quiet post-lockout, either.  Lets take a look at the competition. 

Braves - The Braves traded for Matt Olson who had a little break out season after flirting with excellence for several seasons. This means Freddie Freeman is out (and likely in LA but we'll see).  What's the trade off there? Olson had been a better fielder - legit gold glove material - though seemed a little off last year. You don't judge D by one year though so I'd assume if he isn't near best he's still very good. Freeman is starting to age into being bad, though isn't quite there yet. At the plate... well it depends on how much you believe last year.  If you buy into it Olson would be just as patient as Freddie while showing more power which makes up for the fact Freddie is a better pure hitter.  If you don't buy into it Olson is a little worse hitter and a little less patient and Freddie very likely to outhit him. 

Of course the second biggest thing is Olson is 3-4 years younger than Freeman meaning he's likely to maintain being what he is vs Freeman who's likely to slip a little. At worst the Braves got an equal player in terms of production. The biggest thing is Olson is far cheaper probably doing this at half the cost of Freeman with no 35+ years hanging out there as would for Freeman on another deal. 

The Braves gave up a bunch of decent prospects for this haul.  Cristian Pache (23) everyone was once very high on and is going to be in the majors. The question is as a super 4th OF because of his D and base running or a very good everyday player. Shea Langeliers (24) is college guy who looks good in limited games and is very likely to be a major league catcher in the next year or two. Ryan Cusick (22) was the Braves #1 pick last year with fantastic swing and miss stuff (but control issues). Joey Estes (20) is another live arm who's biggest weakness (too many fly balls) plays well in Oakland. It's a haul that empties out the Braves system and paints them as a win now team, albeit that NOW period stretches probably 3-5 years given their relative youth.

Mets -  The Mets traded for Chirs Bassit who you may remember as the Oakland pitcher who got hit in the face last year. He has always been pretty good but in the past couple years matured into something even better, as he seems to be learning how to optimally pitch. At 33 he's not in NY for the long haul but he's an EXTREMELY good #3.  The prospects given up were fine but nothing like the Braves haul, as to be expected for a guy Bassit's age with one year left.

The Mets also brought in Adam Ottavino who had surprised in Colorado but hadn't been great in NY or Boston outside of a little luck.  He is still a decent arm in the pen and if you can keep him facing primarily righties, maybe even good.

Phillies - They got Aaron Barrett! Barrett if you somehow forgot is the Nats guy who looked real good in 2014 into 2015 but then his arm "broke" and he needed Tommy John and then after rehabbing that his arm BROKE (no quotes) and he needed a full year to get back from that. He persevered and did it.  Unfortunately his very limited major league stints were terrible and the Nats couldn't bring themselves to give him another shot in 2021 despite good AAA stats. The Phillies will try and given their pen that makes sense - of course same for the Nats! What were they thinking?

They also signed Jeurys Familia who is in theory decent but always seems to be a problem. If you are a Phillies fan reading this last year did look a lot more like his better seasons with some bad luck HR wise. If you are not a Phillies fan, he got hit more and gave up more homers last year so if the Ks go back down he could be toast. Seems like a Phillies reliever to me.

And they signed Brad Hand. Back to the very first sentence of this post Brad Hand was actually good for the Nats, until he wasn't and then he was very quickly very bad and he went to the Jays and kept being that bad. But after the Jays kicked him out he ended up on the Mets and seemed ok again. Just one of those years? If so the Phillies could have a great arm for relatively cheap. But who wants to bet on the Phillies pen?

finally they brought back Odubel Herrera who is just a guy. If he's their worst every day player that's pretty good, but he's usually not.

Marlins - the Marlins have done nothing with suggests the rumors that Jeter left because they weren't going to try to supplement an exciting young pitching staff with the offense it needs is probably true. But hey, maybe Correa signs there today! 

The Nats are better than they were pre-lockout but it's not in a vacuum. Braves aren't better today BUT aren't worse, they are better probably for 2023 and their fortunes this eyar mostly rely on how good Acuna is when he returns (Likely in May).  The Mets are better than they were pre-lockout and they were already better with Max. And the Phillies, well they are at least doing something, throw enough junk at a pen and one year it'll work (rotation still needs work). The Nats might have popped back past the Marlins for 4th but beyond that well it depends on Strasburg. He's supposed to throw today. Let's see how he looks