Jose Cisnero, RP
This righty reliever will be arbitration eligible for the first time in 2022 and will not reach free agency until 2024. Over the last two years, Jose Cisnero has taken some positive steps to turn himself into a serviceable reliever for a contending team. This is after posting three seasons of a plus 4.00 ERA, including a 9.64 ERA over five games in 2014.
In the COVID-shortened 2020 season, Cisnero’s ERA+ jumped from 110 in 2019 to 152 in 2020. One of the reasons Cisnero has seen additional success in the last few seasons is because he has maximized his strikeouts and improved his walk ratio. From his debut with the Houston Astros in 2013, Cisneros began with a 8.45 K/9 and 4.53 BB/9.
Thus far, in 2021, Cisneros has a K/9 ratio of 11.81 (career high) and a 3.38 B/9 (would be second lowest of career if season ended today). His four seam fastball has also gained a little over three miles per hour velocity since 2013.
Can't stop watching José Cisnero strike out Nelson Cruz.#DetroitRoots pic.twitter.com/qwtdCuKDXU
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) April 7, 2021
Cisnero features a 96.8 mile per hour fastball, 88.1 mile per hour slider, and a 91 mile per hour changeup. Most of the time (58.5 percent), Cisnero is firing his mid 90s fastball at the batter. 34 percent of the time, Cisnero is throwing his slider and throwing a sub-par changeup about seven percent of the time. Cisnero has seen a drop in swinging strikes (14.8 percent last year compared to 10.1 percent this year) but, interestingly, his called strikes have increased over five percentage points from last year (13.3 to 18.8 percent).
At the very least, the righty reliever has had enormous success against lefties, going against the results of his career. Cisnero has held left handed batters to a .189/.325/.216 slash line compared to his career numbers of .263/.384/.397; an interesting comparison that is worth taking a shot on.