Darren Oliver and George Sherrill sign
Relievers Darren Oliver and George Sherrill signed one-year deals with the Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners respectively. Oliver will also get a club option for the 2013 season, and he has been worth at least 1 WAR for four straight seasons. Sherrill, on the other hand, will reunite with his first Major League team after being sent to the Baltimore Orioles in the famous Erik Bedard trade. Sherrill has been worth a combined 0 WAR in the past two seasons while pitching for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Atlanta Braves. He has only been worth 1 WAR twice in his career; in his last season with the Mariners and two years later in 2009 with the O’s and Boston Red Sox.
Darren Oliver is defying the laws of old age, and the 41-year-old is striking out more hitters as he gets older. He set down 7.76 hitters per nine last season with the Texas Rangers, and he walked just under two batters per nine in 2011. He is stranding more baserunners than he used to, and he finished the 2011 season with a solid 2.77 FIP.
Although he was solid last season, it was actually a down year for him, as he had 17 shutdowns and 13 meltdowns. He wasn’t as dominant as he was the previous two seasons, and Oliver’s batted ball statistics were definitely out of the norm. He should still be worth around 1-1.5 WAR next season, and the Blue Jays made a solid move. Oliver may not be the youngest reliever around, but he’s still going strong and should slide in nicely as the team’s new set-up man.
George Sherrill is a more interesting player to profile, but he’s a markedly tougher reliever to predict. He racks up the K’s (8.92 K/9), but he also struggles with his command in general (4.26 BB/9). Sherrill doesn’t induce enough groundballs, thus he gives up 0.75 home runs per nine; despite a HR/FB of 6.7%. He is about an average reliever overall who projects as a 0.3-0.5 WAR reliever (closer to 0.3 WAR, which is the league average for RPs).
The Mariners bullpen is very weak, so Sherrill could rise up the ranks and become a set-up man. He will never be as dominant as he was in 2009, but a 0.5 WAR middle-reliever isn’t a useless commodity. The M’s needed to add somebody who is at least decent to their bullpen, and Sherrill’s mediocrity fits the bill.
One-year deals for relievers are cheap and carry basically no risk, and neither team can be faulted for the deals they made. Darren Oliver is a very good relief pitcher who will provide just that- relief- to a middling Jays bullpen. Oliver and the newly acquired Sergio Santos provide a nice one-two punch in the late innings. George Sherrill isn’t nearly as valuable as Oliver, but he is an average reliever who will aid his new- or old- club’s bullpen on a whole.
Be sure to check out all of Call to the Pen’s transaction breakdowns for the 2011-12 offseason.