The Miami Marlins added to their bullpen mix by bringing in veteran Ross Detwiler.
If the Miami Marlins want to find themselves back in the playoffs next season, they’re going to need an improved bullpen to do so.
On Friday evening, the Marlins took another step in bolstering the National League’s worst bullpen by signing free agent reliever Ross Detwiler to one-year, major league deal. SportsGrid’s Craig Mish was first to report the signing, also noting that the Miami Marlins intend to use Detwiler out of the bullpen in 2021.
The 6’5″, 34-year-old righty has worked as a starter and reliever since breaking into the major leagues back in 2007, but spent all of 2020 working out of the ‘pen with the Chicago White Sox.
Detwiler is coming off one of the better performances of his career, posting a 3.20 ERA (3.90 FIP) and 1.22 WHIP across 19.2 relief innings. He struck out more than 18% of hitters he faced and walked 6%, which was the fewest percentage of walks allowed by Detwiler since the 2013 season.
His 18.5% strikeout rate was a career-best, as was his 1.22 WHIP and 13% swinging-strike rate.
Armed with a deep repertoire of pitches, Detwiler changed things up a bit in 2020, relying predominantly on his slider (30% usage rate), a pitch he had never heavily relied on in the past. It turned out to be a real asset for him, limiting opponents to a .208 average and producing a 34% whiff rate.
It’s a solid, under-the-radar bullpen signing for the Miami Marlins, who have addressed the unit with a few other potential high-upside signings.
At the end of November, Miami traded for RHP Adam Cimber from Cleveland. The 6’4″ righty has had a short track record of success in the majors over the last three seasons with Cleveland and San Diego, bringing with him a career-3.89 ERA and 56% groundball rate.
Miami also made a trade with the Arizona Diamondbacks, landing Rule 5 pick Zach Pop. Pop was selected out of the Baltimore Orioles organization and hasn’t pitched since 2018 due to Tommy John surgery in 2019 and the cancellation of the 2020 minor league baseball season, but he’s armed with an upper-90’s fastball and a wipeout slider, and should be a full-go for the 2021 season.
If Pop is fully recovered now, he could be an intriguing late-inning option for Miami.
These aren’t eye-opening moves, but they are low-cost, smart moves by the Miami Marlins as they attempt to fix one of the biggest areas of need on the roster.
Last year, Miami’s bullpen posted a 5.50 ERA, struck out the fewest hitters per game at 7.30/9 IP, and ranked among the bottom five teams in the league with a 4.60 BB/9 and 1.64 HR/9 rate. Only the Seattle Mariners (-1.5) had a worse bullpen WAR than the Miami Marlins -1.4 mark.