Article: REPORT: Twins Finalizing Deal With Blake Parker

[Tom Froemming]

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported on Twitter that right-handed relief pitcher Blake Parker is expected to sign soon and that the landing spot is believed to be the Twins. Parker, 33, was non-tendered by the Angels earlier this offseason. He pitched to a 2.90 ERA, 1.03 WHIP and saved 22 games for the Angels the past two seasons.UPDATE: Jeff Passan of ESPN confirmed the Twins are indeed finalizing a deal with Parker. His sources say it's a one-year deal worth slightly more than $3 million.

 

Here's what I wrote about Parker in the non-tender tracker we ran here at Twins Daily on Nov. 30:

 

 

Blake Parker will be non-tendered by the Angels, according to Mark Feinsand. This is the most surprising one so far in my book. Parker has pitched to a 2.90 ERA in 138 appearances over the past two seasons with the Angels, racking up 22 saves in the process. He also has an impressive 1.03 WHIP and 4.46 K:BB ratio over that same stretch (10.5 K/9, 2.4 BB/9). Parker, 33, was projected to make a modest $3.1 million.

And I added this in my recap of the day's activity:

 

Final Thoughts

Some of these guys could make a lot of sense for the Twins.

 

Blake Parker is a guy who jumps out in particular, mainly because I think bullpen help is probably the biggest need right now.

At least in my eyes, Parker stacks up favorably when you compare him to some of the other relief pitchers available on the market. That's especially true if we look back at 2017-18 numbers combined.

 

Past two seasons

Blake Parker

2.90 ERA, 3.55 FIP, 1.03 WHIP, 22.8 K-BB%

 

Adam Ottavino

3.50 ERA, 3.72 FIP, 1.25 WHIP, 18.1 K-BB%

 

Cody Allen

3.82 ERA, 3.87 FIP, 1.26 WHIP, 20.7 K-BB%

 

Kelvin Herrera

3.47 ERA, 4.15 FIP, 1.28 WHIP, 14.5 K-BB%

 

*Moments after the Parker news broke Jeff Passan of ESPN reported the White Sox signed Herrera to a two-year, $18 million deal with a vesting third-year option.

 

To be fair, there's a good reason why I zoomed out to the past two seasons. Parker is coming off a much less impressive season than he posted in 2017. Two seasons ago his FIP was 2.71, last year it was 4.40.

 

According to Baseball Savant, Parker relies on his four seamer 58 percent of the time while mixing in a splitter 31.1 percent of the time and his curve at 10.9 percent. All three of those offerings took a dip in velocity from 2017 to last season, with the four-seam fastball going from 93.5 mph in 2017 to 92.1 last year.

 

So there are certainly some things to like about Parker and some to be concerned about, as you would expect from a player who was recently non-tendered.

 

Again, it's important to point out that at this time the signing has not been confirmed, but it would be surprising to see someone like Ken Rosenthal to connect a player to a team without having a strong inclination that things were fairly settled.

 

Something to keep in mind is the Twins' 40-man roster is currently full, so they'll need to DFA another player to make room for Parker. Last week the Twins designated Aaron Slegers to make room for Nelson Cruz.

 

4:23 Update: Jeff Passan is reporting that the deal is close and believed to be worth slightly more than $3 million.

 

 

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[MN_ExPat]

Hmm?   Well then.   Welcome to the Twins I guess.

[AceWrigley]

If he can keep the ball in the park, he should be effective. I like that he reduced his walk rate significantly moving from the minors to MLB without reducing his K rate. More meat for the pen . . . yeah baby.

[Vanimal46]

Minnesota Twins: This is How We Sign your Untendered Scraps

[rdehring]

The only negative I see is that he is 33 years old.  Will he be 34 by opening day?  But that probably helps getting him signed to a 2 year contract, ala Reed.  Speaking of Reed, real good chance that one of the two has a good year as the Twins closer.  If both pitch as hoped for...look out Central Division!

 

 

[Nick Nelson]

Tweeted about this, but these two numbers give me pause with Parker:

 

1) His outstanding 2017 numbers were aided by a .219 BABIP (.288 career)

2) His decent numbers in 2018 were aided by an 89.4% strand rate (3rd-highest in MLB)

[Dr. Beanpole]

A good candidate to eat some innings in the 6/7/8 innings. I like it if it happens. Probably need one more guy like that and the bullpen should be fine.

[nytwinsfan]

 

Tweeted about this, but these two numbers give me pause with Parker:

 

1) His outstanding 2017 numbers were aided by a .219 BABIP (.288 career)

2) His decent numbers in 2018 were aided by an 89.4% strand rate (3rd-highest in MLB)

 

True, but that shouldn't really affect his FIP right? I mean, maybe a little in that with a lower BABIP he gets into trouble less often and so gets less tired/can use his splitter more, etc., but it shouldn't affect is FIP much right, and that was still much better in 2017?

[ChrisKnutson]

Not a bad signing, but we still really need a closer, and the only realistic high end options left are Brad Brach, Justin Wilson, Kelvin Herrera, Hunter Strickland, Cody Allen, and Greg Holland.

 

If it were my decision, I’d sign Allen to close and Herrera (or Wilson) to set him up.

[Nick Nelson]

Herrera comes off the market, going to a rival:

 

[jkcarew]

An average (optimistically) 34-year-old, right-handed, bullpen arm. I would be angry...but then I realize we have at least 6 40-man spots already being wasted. Falls solidly in the oh-so-familiar 'why not' category of Twins moves over the last couple of years.

[Brandon]

He is a good mid relief pitcher. We need some of them. He is likely better than McGill. Probably costs around 2.5 to 3.5 million this year with arbitration next year. Im good with this. Now get us a closer and maybe a depth starter and call it an offseason.

[Mike Sixel]

His velocity also dropped. Not exactly awe inspiring. Good luck to him and the team he signs with.

[Thrylos]

2018:

Opponents slash line with RISP
Blake Parker: .150/.239/.254
Trevor Hildenberger: .326/.440/.605
Tyler Duffey: .240/.269/.565

 

Overall WPA:
Blake Parker: 0.68
Trevor Hildenberger: -1.98
Tyler Duffey: 0.01

 

Much improvement over these 2...

[diehardtwinsfan]

I like this signing... Can we still get one more?

[KGB]

Herrera's 2 year contract was too long for the Boys, glad we got another 1 year deal done - still keeping our options open

[bighat]

 

He is a good mid relief pitcher. We need some of them. He is likely better than McGill. Probably costs around 2.5 to 3.5 million this year with arbitration next year. Im good with this. Now get us a closer and maybe a depth starter and call it an offseason.

 

A boring off-season (aside from Cruz) but then again it was to be expected. I'm okay with Parker, as long as he performs like he did the past 2 years. We have to assume he will until he proves otherwise. Better than McGill or Duffey. Agreed now we need that 9th inning fireballer with ice in his veins. Where do we get one?

[Kelly Vance]

So we are so desperate for good news we are reporting rumors now?  

[USAFChief]

meh.

[Squirrel]

meh.

Concur

[nicksaviking]

Unexciting but better than most players the Twins have signed after being DFA'd.

[SomeGuy]

Decent, plus he would qualify for arbitration next season if the deal is a 1 year deal.  Hopefully he is not the marquee bullpen guy we sign this year.

 

As another possible red flag, Angels ballpark is a pitchers park.  Over that good 2017-2018 span that he had, there was a serious home/away split. 

 

Home 1.61 ERA

Away  4.42 ERA

[TheLeviathan]

This should be the third best pen arm we sign.  We're running out of options for the first and second.

[S.]

Considering how low our payroll is, it'd be nice if we could maybe get some actually good pitchers. As TheLeviathan said, this move is ok IF there are other better moves coming. But I doubt there are.

[USAFChief]

 

Unexciting but better than most players the Twins have signed after being DFA'd.

Winner.

[baumannmd]

Trying really hard not to read too much in to the fact that 4 of the Twins acquisitions this offseason have been non-tendered by their 2018 teams.

 

1. CJ Cron

2. Ronald Torreyes

3. Jonathan Schoop

4. Blake Parker

 

The only player (check my math) signed as a free agent who wasn't non-tendered is Nelson Cruz.

[ahart10]

Would much rather of had Herrera on his deal. Especially considering all the bullpen arms are coming off the board. Who’s left but Kimbrel for “game changers”?

[mikelink45]

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/2018-positional-power-rankings-bullpen-1-15/

the bullpen that ranked just below the Twins was the Angels and they DFA'd him.  Not the kind of signing I was hoping for, but congratulations to the white Sox who signed Herrera. 

[Twodogs]

 

Not a bad signing, but we still really need a closer, and the only realistic high end options left are Brad Brach, Justin Wilson, Kelvin Herrera, Hunter Strickland, Cody Allen, and Greg Holland.

If it were my decision, I’d sign Allen to close and Herrera (or Wilson) to set him up.

What happened to Greg Holland?  He was a beast for about 4 years straight then last year he did nothing.  Just curious if he still might have what it takes to close out games.  I guess Allen would be another good option but they better do something quick as they are falling off the board fast.  I think one good guy to close out games is all they really need to start the season.  I'd rather they go with the guys they have for their staff and see if they can make it work.  I really think if the lineup responds that they will win more games this year.  If they do, then they can make a big splash for a front line starter at the trade deadline rather than go for some other #3 or #4 type starter right now.  They would have the money available come the trade deadline and they have the prospects also.  Just get that guy that can finish the games for now.

 

JMO

[Twodogs]

 

Decent, plus he would qualify for arbitration next season if the deal is a 1 year deal.  Hopefully he is not the marquee bullpen guy we sign this year.

 

As another possible red flag, Angels ballpark is a pitchers park.  Over that good 2017-2018 span that he had, there was a serious home/away split. 

 

Home 1.61 ERA

Away  4.42 ERA

Not sure if that means what it really means because Oakland and Seattle have even more pitcher friendly parks than Anaheim and they play a ton of games in Oakland and Seattle.  Maybe he just pitches better at home.  I guess if it is broken down by park and he did well in Oakland and Seattle but say got bombed in Boston then that would make more sense.