Craig Calcaterra of Hardball Talk is reporting that the Pittsburgh Pirates have re-signed coveted right-handed reliever Jason Grilli, and it will be interesting to see how much money the Pirates will be giving the 36-year-old. Grilli is coming off of one of the best years of his career, as he was worth 1.1 WAR and managed to strike out an insane 13.81 batters per nine innings.
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The Toronto Blue Jays, San Francisco Giants, and Chicago Cubs were the three other teams in the final four for one of the game’s best set-up man. He’s been one of the best relievers in the game over the past two seasons in Pittsburgh, as he has had a 2.76 ERA with the team.
Grilli is rated highly by other advanced metrics, because he was actually a tad unlucky last season. He had less ground balls than usual, but that’s largely because he was just striking out everybody who came to the dish. Grilli had a 2.80 FIP and a 2.68 xFIP.
At least ten teams were interested in the Pirates reliever, and it’s great to hear that the team has re-signed the veteran strikeout artist in the bullpen. As a Pirates fan, I am happy to hear that the team has managed to keep him over the other teams looking for him. I just hope the deal is a reasonable one and isn’t some three-year deal or expensive two-year pact.
But man, Grilli has been excellent in Pittsburgh.
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