Post by levine on Aug 3, 2022 17:15:36 GMT -6
Snippets from Gleeman on the trades:
Mahle, a 27-year-old right-hander with a mid-90s fastball, came at the biggest cost and carries the most upside as a playoff-caliber starter for this season and next. His surface-level numbers are plenty impressive on their own, including a 3.93 ERA and 10.4 strikeouts per nine innings since 2020, but his underlying metrics are even better and Mahle should benefit from a new home ballpark.
As a fly-ball pitcher, Mahle was particularly ill-suited for Cincinnati’s power-inflating ballpark, where he’s posted a 4.83 ERA since 2020 compared to a 2.93 ERA on the road. And though his 4.40 ERA overall this year isn’t pretty, Mahle’s secondary numbers continue to paint the picture of a front-line starter. In fact, his 3.60 FIP and 3.22 xERA are both better than they were in 2020 and 2021.
Last season, in posting a 3.75 ERA, he struck out 27 percent of batters faced and allowed a .704 OPS. This season, in posting a 4.40 ERA, he’s whiffed 26 percent of batters faced and allowed a .690 OPS. With a more forgiving home ballpark, it’s easy to envision Mahle emerging as one of baseball’s 25 or so best starters. Twins officials think he’s basically already there.
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López, a first-time All-Star at age 29, saved 19 games with a 1.68 ERA for the Orioles, and an interesting wrinkle is that two of his three outings all season in which he allowed multiple earned runs came against the Twins. Remove those games and he’d have a 0.99 ERA in 46 innings, with a .146 batting average and just one homer allowed. It’s hard to be more dominant than that.
López is joining one of the few teams for whom he wouldn’t have far and away the most overpowering raw stuff on the pitching staff because that honor goes to Jhoan Duran and his majors-leading 100.6 mph average fastball. López can hit triple-digits with his sinker, which averages 97.8 mph, and each of his three off-speed pitches has held opponents to a sub-.200 batting average.
There are only nine MLB relievers with a strikeout rate above 25 percent and a ground-ball rate above 55 percent this season, and the Twins now have two of them in Duran and López. There aren’t many relievers who throw this hard, miss this many bats and induce this many grounders, possibly giving the Twins one of the league’s elite late-inning combos for the next 2 1/2 seasons.
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Fulmer, a 29-year-old impending free agent, also found success shifting to the bullpen last season after injuries derailed a once-promising starting career that included being named Rookie of the Year in 2016 and making the All-Star team in 2017. Fulmer has a 2.80 ERA and 105 strikeouts in 96 innings of relief, giving up just seven homers and a .238 batting average.
Fulmer’s approach is vastly different compared to his days as a starter when he pitched to contact and mostly relied on a mid-90s sinker to keep the ball on the ground. He’s lost some velocity, but Fulmer’s strikeout rate has jumped in relief because he’s become one of MLB’s most slider-heavy pitchers, leaning more on what is an elite breaking ball.
theathletic.com/3472605/2022/08/03/twins-trade-jorge-lopez-tyler-mahle-michael-fulmer/
Mahle, a 27-year-old right-hander with a mid-90s fastball, came at the biggest cost and carries the most upside as a playoff-caliber starter for this season and next. His surface-level numbers are plenty impressive on their own, including a 3.93 ERA and 10.4 strikeouts per nine innings since 2020, but his underlying metrics are even better and Mahle should benefit from a new home ballpark.
As a fly-ball pitcher, Mahle was particularly ill-suited for Cincinnati’s power-inflating ballpark, where he’s posted a 4.83 ERA since 2020 compared to a 2.93 ERA on the road. And though his 4.40 ERA overall this year isn’t pretty, Mahle’s secondary numbers continue to paint the picture of a front-line starter. In fact, his 3.60 FIP and 3.22 xERA are both better than they were in 2020 and 2021.
Last season, in posting a 3.75 ERA, he struck out 27 percent of batters faced and allowed a .704 OPS. This season, in posting a 4.40 ERA, he’s whiffed 26 percent of batters faced and allowed a .690 OPS. With a more forgiving home ballpark, it’s easy to envision Mahle emerging as one of baseball’s 25 or so best starters. Twins officials think he’s basically already there.
---------------
López, a first-time All-Star at age 29, saved 19 games with a 1.68 ERA for the Orioles, and an interesting wrinkle is that two of his three outings all season in which he allowed multiple earned runs came against the Twins. Remove those games and he’d have a 0.99 ERA in 46 innings, with a .146 batting average and just one homer allowed. It’s hard to be more dominant than that.
López is joining one of the few teams for whom he wouldn’t have far and away the most overpowering raw stuff on the pitching staff because that honor goes to Jhoan Duran and his majors-leading 100.6 mph average fastball. López can hit triple-digits with his sinker, which averages 97.8 mph, and each of his three off-speed pitches has held opponents to a sub-.200 batting average.
There are only nine MLB relievers with a strikeout rate above 25 percent and a ground-ball rate above 55 percent this season, and the Twins now have two of them in Duran and López. There aren’t many relievers who throw this hard, miss this many bats and induce this many grounders, possibly giving the Twins one of the league’s elite late-inning combos for the next 2 1/2 seasons.
--------------
Fulmer, a 29-year-old impending free agent, also found success shifting to the bullpen last season after injuries derailed a once-promising starting career that included being named Rookie of the Year in 2016 and making the All-Star team in 2017. Fulmer has a 2.80 ERA and 105 strikeouts in 96 innings of relief, giving up just seven homers and a .238 batting average.
Fulmer’s approach is vastly different compared to his days as a starter when he pitched to contact and mostly relied on a mid-90s sinker to keep the ball on the ground. He’s lost some velocity, but Fulmer’s strikeout rate has jumped in relief because he’s become one of MLB’s most slider-heavy pitchers, leaning more on what is an elite breaking ball.
theathletic.com/3472605/2022/08/03/twins-trade-jorge-lopez-tyler-mahle-michael-fulmer/