The Blue Jays have agreed to a deal with southpaw Brett Oberholtzer, tweets FanRag’s Jon Heyman. Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi tweets that it’s a minor league contract.
The 27-year-old Oberholtzer struggled mightily in 2016, though, pitching to a career-worst 5.89 ERA with 6.9 K/9, 3.7 BB/9 and a 42.3 percent ground-ball rate in 70 innings between the Philies and Angels. The former Astros southpaw found himself traded to the Phillies last winter as part of the Ken Giles blockbuster, but he struggled with both teams for which he pitched in 2016 and elected free agency after being outrighted earlier this offseason.
Oberholtzer has a 4.36 ERA to go along with 6.1 K/9, 2.4 BB/9 and a 39.3 percent ground-ball rate in 324 big league innings. He doesn’t dominate lefties like so many other left-handed pitchers, so if he ends up making the club at some point in 2017, Oberholtzer is more of a swingman option than a candidate for situational work against lefties late in games.
Dumpster diving
So you’re going to say this on every minor league deal for every team?
Relax pal, I’m just stating the obvious.
Ok sorry if that came off as condescending or harsh but litterally every team has dozens of deals like this
Hey you’re right. Sorry if I came across as being a D
^ role models
I like it. Oberholtzer isn’t anything special but the likelihood the Jays go through another season using just 7 starters is slim to none. Having 1-3 Oberholtzer’s down in AAA plus having a veteran starter as a long man out of the pen should help when injuries hit. Would still like to see Feldman brought back but he might get a guaranteed starter’s role(or shot) in this weak market.
Let’s Go for Charlie Blackmon on a trade. not that they sign Ian Desmond.
Great OF, Great Bats, Perfect for leadoff hitter.
Blackmon – Smoak, Harris and another prospect.
Blackmon – And other suitable trades. (Maybe Stroman, but I like stro to be a jay)
Smoak has little to no value to any team outside Toronto. And Blackmon has a ton of trade value so it’d likely cost the Jays 2 prospects in their top 5 plus others.
And I really don’t get this notion of dealing Stroman or another rotation piece to fill an OF spot. All that does is create a larger and more difficult hole to fill just to fill a spot that can easily be filled via FA.
Stroman I wrote “maybe” since I heard Morosi mentioned it today..
I don’t what that to happen and it doesn’t make sense at all to me too.
Sorry, I didn’t mean you specifically, I meant it in general.
There’s some thought Biagini could move to the rotation, in which case maybe they would consider moving a starter. Giving up Stroman for Blackmon is a pretty bleh idea in my book though.
I’ve seen Biagini’s name thrown around as a rotation option and IMO it’s a bad idea. Biagini was highly effective as a BP arm because in the BP, he was able to gear it up and raised his fastball velocity by 3-4 mph. In the minors as a starter, he sat in the 88-91 range while last year, he was at around 94 and even touched 96 at times. As a starter, he’s likely dropping back down to 90-91 with his fastball which isn’t much different from his slider(87-89) or his change(85-87). He has the potential 4 pitch mix to be a starter(4 seam, cutter, slider and change) but unfortunately all 4 of his pitches are within 5 mph of each other.
Smoak has no value IN Toronto either!
The big “O” has got to be better than LOUP…!!! Loup was found buried under the dumpster so he’s absolutely terrible!!!