Just under two weeks ago, rehabbing Phillies right-hander David Robertson was optimistic he’d return to the team’s bullpen sometime in September. That looks far less likely now, though, as Robertson suffered a setback in his recovery from July 2019 Tommy John surgery, Matt Breen of The Athletic tweets.
With just a month left in the regular season and the Phillies a couple games out of a wild-card spot, it’s eminently possible Robertson has thrown his final pitch with the team. Robertson has a $12MM club option for 2021, but the Phillies are sure to buy him out for $2MM, regardless of whether he pitches this season.
Robertson was a consistently durable and excellent performer with the Yankees and White Sox earlier in his career, but he has totaled a mere 6 2/3 innings with the Phillies since they signed him to a two-year, $23MM contract before 2019. It was an understandable gamble at the time by the Phillies, as Robertson was then coming off his ninth straight season of at least 60 innings and was the owner of a 2.88 ERA/2.81 FIP with 11.97 K/9, 3.56 BB/9, 137 saves and 145 holds over 657 innings. Unfortunately for Philly, though, the signing has blown up in its face, and it doesn’t appear Robertson will provide the team any on-field value this season.
honestly I dont know what we could reasonably expect this year from him anyway.
If he had been able to make it back from the TJ surgery without setbacks I don’t see why he wouldn’t have been able to provide his typical 3.00-3.50 ERA 10+ K/9 baseball… I mean granted he is a bit older now but if he did actually make it back I don’t see why he wouldn’t be effective again.
Effective and equivalent or better than his career average in the first month back from TJ is not a realistic expectation.
He didn’t need to be as effective as he was before. A pitcher who is five times less effective than Robertson was during most of his career would have been an improvement for the Phillies bullpen, though.
the bullpen has been a lot better lately with the additions made. some good addition and some addition by subtraction. maybe he coulf have helped but it would have taken game action to prove that, and the Phillies wolnt be able to risk shaky outings then.
Nice work if you can get it
What is “stupid money”?
If Robertson doesn’t pitch again this year – and PHI doesn’t pick-up his 2021 team option (an almost certainty) – then Robertson would have made $154,411 per pitch from the Phillies. 58% went for strikes, fwiw.
The Phils are currently the 8 seed, not 2 games out. They would be 2 games out if it were the normal 2 Wild Card teams.
This goes to show us again and again that spending “stupid money” on a reliever/closer is a poor investment especially in a long term deal.
2 years is hardly a long term deal
To be fair 2 years isn’t what I’d consider a long term contact. But it doesn’t make a whole lot sense for an organization to say they are going to spend stupid money. Even from just a bargaining standpoint, say they were in contact with a potential FA signee. The player is gonna think “oh they will come up on the potential number because they are gonna spend stupid money.” I’m not genius but I’m pretty sure talking about how much money your gonna blow isn’t one of the keys to expert bargaining.
It has possibly saved the Braves season this year signing Smith, O’Day, and Martin, and then keeping Greene and Melancon..
It is just a crapshoot, so it carries some risks, but that depth has tremendously helped the Braves stay relevant this year..
Sometimes I forget he’s even on their team.
Robertson would make a fine agent.
This was a move I loved, but it’s been a disaster. Klentak gets deserved hate, but this move was just bad luck. A pitcher known for his health and durability gave the Phillies what? 4 outings?
This is call robbery and I love it! Looks, Braves aren’t immune … Hamels doing the same to us…
Yup. Sucks in both cases.