Baltimore Orioles Should Trade Closer Zach Britton Now

The time has come for the Baltimore Orioles to part ways with their elite closer.

For the Baltimore Orioles, Zach Britton has provided them with an immense amount of value over the past few years. When they have needed it most, he has slammed the door and risen to be one of the best closers in baseball. Beyond that, he has become arguably one of the best pitchers in the game.

Over the past three seasons, he has pitched 209 innings while accruing an impressive 215 strikeouts against 55 walks and 135 hits. Moreover, his talent has allowed him to post sub-2.00 earned run averages all three seasons while racking up saves all the while. His 120 saves become all the more impressive when compared to just the eight blown chances in that time.

As great as those numbers all are, they pale in contrast to the insanity of his 2016 season. He posted a 0.54 earned run average in 67 innings – almost an entire run better than the next best pitcher. His win probability added of 6.14 is superb for a reliever, and FanGraphs valued him at 2.5 wins above replacement.

He accomplished this with the aforementioned excellent combination of many strikeouts and few hits and walks, but he also complemented this figures with an absurd number of groundballs. Eighty percent of the batted balls he allowed were hit on the ground this past season.

Let’s let that settle in for a moment. Eighty percent is 14 percentage points higher than the next highest rate, and it is the highest percentage in at least a decade among all qualified relievers. The next closest rate is roughly one point behind, and that statistic is just Britton’s 2015 season. Only Brad Ziegler in 2012 had more than three-quarters of his batted balls turn up as grounders.

So if Britton has pitched excellently of late and his combination of groundballs and strikeouts is virtually unprecedented, why should the Baltimore Orioles trade him?