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Tuesday, November 23, 2021
The Chicago White Sox signed right-handed reliever Kendall Graveman to a three-year, $24 million deal on Tuesday, a source confirmed to ESPN’s Jesse Rogers on Tuesday.
Graveman, a seven-year veteran, joined the Astros in a July 27 intra-division trade with the Seattle Mariners. After going 4-0 with a 0.82 ERA and 10 saves in 30 appearances in Seattle, he helped bolster the Astros’ bullpen down the stretch, going 1-1 with a 3.13 ERA in 23 appearances.
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1. John Northey Posted: November 23, 2021 at 09:42 PM (#6054409)With relievers I see them as interchangeable with rare exceptions. 2021 was Graveman's first year in the pen, having a 92 ERA+ before that. Maybe he just belonged there all along but I wouldn't bet $24 million on it. If I ran a team I'd be looking at other failed starters who have shown great stuff at times who might succeed in the pen and try a few of them instead - see what sticks in spring and keep the best ones. Then repeat in AAA and see if you get anyone ready to step in and fill in on the cheap too. Last winter the Jays spent $5 mil on a closer with injury issues (Yates) and $3 mil on an ex-starter who turned out to be wild (Chatwood), and just shy of $2 mil on a 'proven reliever' in Phelps - all 3 were gone by mid-season while former rule 5 guy (lost and returned) took over as the closer (23-1 saves-blown saves) - Romano. A 29 year old pre-arb guy became the most reliable set up (Mayza), and cheap trades filled it in mid-season (Cimber, Richards). If those expensive guys had stayed healthy or had been effective then the Jays would've made the playoffs. Instead they came up 1 game short. I'm glad they aren't focusing on that this winter but instead looking at starters and the 3B/2B hole if Semien doesn't resign (doesn't look good right now).
More to the point, the Sox clearly intend to move Kopech to the rotation, and trade Kimbrel, and may be losing Tepera, so they needed a pen arm (and probably a swingman). Of course, they also need a 2B, and an outfielder, so the hope is $8M doesn't kill the budget for those spots....
But that's a false dichotomy.
Signing Graveman for one year at 8 million might be preferable to signing a whole bunch of 2 million bounceback candidates.
But that's not what Chicago did or the choice they had.
They committed 8 million for 3 years betting that 2021 Gravemanis the real deal vs 3 separate years of flexibility and 8 million dollars in cash flow to patch holes in a bullpen.
I guess this means they are confident they can move Kimbrel. Man, what a disastrous trade that was.
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