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    REPORT: Twins Finalizing Deal With Blake Parker

    Tom Froemming

    By 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.

    Image courtesy of © Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports

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    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.

    You can find more of Tom's work on his YouTube channel, TFTwins. He also runs a prospects/draft coverage Patreon with fellow Twins Daily contributor Jamie Cameron, Limestone Pipeline. 

    Follow Tom Froemming on Twitter: TFTwins

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    cmoss84

    cmoss84 984

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

     

    (Curtiss has a higher ceiling than Parker.)

    FWIW

    Have a couple sports geeks buddies that are big time Angel fans (realistic ones). They said he "was decent," and probably the best RP in their pen, which was not very good.

     

    Parker a safer bet to contribute for us. Curtiss, like you said, has higher ceiling, but Parker a better chance of being reliable. 

    Doomtints

    Doomtints 2,816

  • Verified Member

    • Posted (edited)

     

    FWIW

    Have a couple sports geeks buddies that are big time Angel fans (realistic ones). They said he "was decent," and probably the best RP in their pen, which was not very good.

     

    Parker a safer bet to contribute for us. Curtiss, like you said, has higher ceiling, but Parker a better chance of being reliable. 

     

    I think this trade can make sense if the Twins are in a "win now" mode. Trade away the guy who (probably) still has to develop for 1.5 years to sign a guy who can 'contribute' right now.

     

    However, the Twins are not in a "win now" mode -- they don't even want to spend anything -- so they should have kept the guy with the higher ceiling and who the team could control until 2025.

     

    I'm not upset about this move but these are the types of things that got the team in trouble under Bill Smith. It really would not surprise me if Curtiss gets a WS ring before he retires as the likelihood that he peaked already with only 15 MLB innings under his belt and such great numbers in the minors seems unlikely. Obviously this is just my opinion, and clearly the Twins have a different opinion.

    Edited by Doomtints
    cmoss84

    cmoss84 984

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

     

    I think this trade can make sense if the Twins are in a "win now" mode. Trade away the guy who (probably) still has to develop for 1.5 years to sign a guy who can 'contribute' right now.

     

    However, the Twins are not in a "win now" mode -- they don't even want to spend anything -- so they should have kept the guy with the higher ceiling and who the team could control until 2025.

     

    I'm not upset about this move but these are the types of things that got the team in trouble under Bill Smith. It really would not surprise me if Curtiss gets a WS ring before he retires as the likelihood that he peaked already with only 15 MLB innings under his belt and such great numbers in the minors seems unlikely. Obviously this is just my opinion, and clearly the Twins have a different opinion.

    Still a lot of free-agent season left. Quality players still out there. We've already signed a few FA-don't be surprised if they sign a couple more (no, I'm not expecting Machado).

     

    I agree with your overall concept, but we might be more in win-now mode than you think...let the off-season play out and we might be in as good of position as any team in our division.

     

    *Also, when the Twins are in "definite win-now mode," how much will they spend? What is the most we have ever spent? Do you expect that number to go up?



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