Nice for Graveman as he was a value draft pick - done to save cash for better options. Love when guys who were expected to be 1 year in the minors then done succeed like this. Seems like a nutty deal to me, but good for him and his agent to suck that much cash out of the ChiSox.

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).

I sort-of disagree with you, John. Graveman has at least shown he can perform as an elite reliever (6-1, 1.75, 63 G/67 IP, K-BB ratio of exactly 3 [72/24] including the postseason) for one year. I'd pay $8M for that extra Bayesian information rather than guessing who *might* be a good conversion candidate and giving four guys $2M each.

Good sign for the Sox

I thought that the thinking was that relievers don't pitch enough innings to expect anything in particular from them (the occasional Rivera excepted), so you just trot out whoever will pitch for the minimum and hope for the best.

Rick Hahn seems to want to shorten games as much as he possibly can. Let your cheap offensive core and high-level rotation get you a lead after 5, turn it over to a top-5 pen, hope for the best. Great in theory, not so much in practice, at least when Kimbrel is there to bork it up.

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....

I'd pay $8M for that extra Bayesian information rather than guessing who *might* be a good conversion candidate and giving four guys $2M each.

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’d much rather see that money go towards resigning Carlos Rodon, or acquiring a real second baseman.

I guess this means they are confident they can move Kimbrel. Man, what a disastrous trade that was.

Regardless of whether it is smart or not the man has an 80 grade last name for a closer.