The Cleveland Indians will most likely add pitcher Esmil Rogers to the active roster today, after the righty was acquired by the Indians in a trade with the Colorado Rockies yesterday. Rogers, 26, was another Rockies pitcher who struggled mightily with an 8.06 ERA in just over 25 innings of work this season.
The Indians will have to send down somebody to make room for Rogers on the active roster, and it will be interesting to see what they do if Rogers is indeed added to the active roster today.
Last season, Esmil Rogers was worth just under the replacement level with a 7.05 ERA in 83 innings of work. In fact, Rogers walked 5.1 batters per nine innings. The thing is, he has a .372 BABIP against him in 184.2 career MLB innings, so his 4.51 FIP is a better representation of his ability as a pitcher. Still, Rogers is struggling right now and has a career 105 xFIP-.
He will most likely get some relief innings here and there for the Indians, but, to be honest, the more interesting thing at this point is to see who will give way to Rogers on the Indians active roster. Rogers is two years removed from a career-high 1.4 WAR season in 2010, with a 3.44 FIP (6.13 ERA). It’s tough to tell how unlucky he has been in his career, because Rogers is a groundball pitcher who does give up quite a bit of walks and home runs.
The high BABIP is unlucky, but some of it has to be due to how he pitches or his lack of ability. It will take some more innings for us to see where he is truly at BABIP-wise, but it is telling that his minor league BABIPs usually hovered around .310.
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