The Los Angeles Angels have signed Dan Jennings to a minor league deal. There is one teammate in particular that he will be happy to see behind him.
On Friday, the Los Angeles Angels agreed to a minor league deal with LHP reliever Dan Jennings. If he makes it to the major league roster, he will be guaranteed $1M with 500K worth of incentives.
Can confirm the #Angels have agreed to a minor league deal with LH reliever Dan Jennings. He will make $1 million and could earn $500k in bonuses if he makes the team.
— Maria Torres (@maria_torres3) February 15, 2019
Jennings sported a solid 3.22 ERA through 64.1 innings pitched with the Brewers in 2018. He attacks hitters with a fastball/slider combo and through his career has contributed a better than average ERA. He throws his fastball 58% of the time and the slider the other 42%.
The Angels latest addition isn’t anyone’s idea of a fireballer, averaging 91 MPH on his heater. Additionally, the spin rate on his slider is merely average. The most impressive part of Jennings profile is that he generates ground balls more than 50% of the time. The other impressive part in his profile Jennings has beat his FIP rather convincingly in each of the last five years except for 2015.
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Year ERA FIP Diff
2014 1.34 3.48 -2.14
2015 3.99 3.47 .52
2016 2.08 3.38 -1.30
2017 3.45 4.72 -1.27
2018 3.22 4.09 -.87
Pitchers that beat their FIP are always going have skepticism attached to them. Additionally, Jennings doesn’t strikeout or walk many people so, he is going to look worse using an FIP model. Ultimately for Jennings, it comes down to contact management.
You already know that he is a ground ball machine and looking at Statcast, hitters average exit velocity against Jennings is a below average 88.4 MPH. This is the exact type of profile that goes overlooked in free agency when teams prioritize velocity and strikeouts. It isn’t shiniest package, but it gets the job done.
What’s more, is Jennings could improve on last season because hell be pitching in front of a better defense. Using Fangraph’s Def rating, you can see the Angels led the league in generating defensive value. The Brewers however, weren’t exactly Johnny IronMitt finishing fourth.
The major distinction comes from digging further into the numbers. Led by the acrobatic Andrelton Simmons at SS, the Angels generated significantly more infield defensive value than the Brewers. This should bode well for Jennings knowing hitters are going to be rolling over on him frequently and hell have the best view in the house to see Simmons and the Angels defenders do what they do.
With all the information out there these days, its hard to take every transaction at face value. In this case, the Angels are getting a solid reliever whose skill set meshes with its defense. Everyone wants to see the fireball closer come in and shut the door, but bridging innings six through eight sets all that up.
For a team that is going to need to squeeze every win out to compete with the Astros and A’s, the Los Angeles Angels will need to protect all the leads they can get, and Jennings should do just that.