Braves sign Dallas Keuchel (1 year, $13 million)

[Eye Black]

The biggest piece of transaction news that broke while the site was down.

 

MLB Trade Rumors Link...

 

FRIDAY, 9:07pm: The Braves have announced the agreement. To make room for Keuchel on their 40-man roster, they transferred reliever Darren O’Day to the 60-day injured list. Atlanta plans to activate Keuchel after he makes two starts in the minors, Mark Bowman of MLB.com tweets.

 

FRIDAY, 6:32pm: Keuchel has passed a physical, per Gabe Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (via Twitter). The signing is expected to be announced tonight.

 

THURSDAY, 9:02pm: Keuchel’s contract is indeed for one year, reports Yahoo’s Tim Brown (Twitter link). He’ll be paid $13MM between now and season’s end, which is a bit more than the $11.16MM he’d have made on a prorated deal worth the same amount as the $17.9MM qualifying offer. (ESPN’s Jeff Passan adds that his base salary is technically around $20MM, and the $13MM represents the prorated version of that sum.) Keuchel will take a physical tomorrow, and he’ll jump right into the fray with Triple-A Gwinnett when he makes a start there on Saturday.

 

THURSDAY, 8:18pm: The Braves have agreed to terms with left-hander Dallas Keuchel, reports David O’Brien of The Athletic (Twitter link). It’s “likely” a one-year deal, O’Brien adds. Keuchel is represented by the Boras Corporation.

 

As was the case with Craig Kimbrel, Keuchel will see his prolonged free-agent saga come to a close just days after the draft-pick compensation that has hung over his head was lifted. The terms of the contract will surely be only a fraction of what the former Cy Young winner had eyed when rejecting a $17.9MM qualifying offer from the Astros back in November, but but a short-term arrangement will allow Keuchel the opportunity to once again test free agency — this time without the burden of a qualifying offer and likely with some lower expectations; Keuchel and Boras reportedly sought a contract of five years and more than $100MM in the early stages of free agency.

[OnTheBlack]

I had trouble logging on the past couple days, I'm guessing others did as well or this thread would be overcome with the panic(by a few, but vocal) posters who just saw another contender at a CY YOUNG WINNER!

 

Keuchel's good, just not a huge fan and not all that confident he's going to add much to your team this year. He's already a soft tossing lefty...which is not the worse thing in the world, but adding him would have likely nearly if not completely closed any other options. I think at the end of the day, BP help and MAYBE a big bat will be more important.

 

I wanted Kimbrel on a deal like this(not for 16 the next two years) but not Kuechel as much. I like our current rotation. Even with my heightened level of skepticism with regard to Nelson. I want to see us add some arms to that BP. Givens from the O's for whatever is reasonable and then try to move on to Will Smith. Those two arms shouldn't kill the farm system, shouldn't kill the payroll, but along with possible reinforcements, should help out our pen enormously. Plus, Givens, he's had a few blowups vs the Yankees that pretty much every pitcher has this year(9 of his 15 ER's) but a pretty strong history.

[Brew crew 92]

I had trouble logging on the past couple days, I'm guessing others did as well or this thread would be overcome with the panic(by a few, but vocal) posters who just saw another contender at a CY YOUNG WINNER!

 

Keuchel's good, just not a huge fan and not all that confident he's going to add much to your team this year. He's already a soft tossing lefty...which is not the worse thing in the world, but adding him would have likely nearly if not completely closed any other options. I think at the end of the day, BP help and MAYBE a big bat will be more important.

 

I wanted Kimbrel on a deal like this(not for 16 the next two years) but not Kuechel as much. I like our current rotation. Even with my heightened level of skepticism with regard to Nelson. I want to see us add some arms to that BP. Givens from the O's for whatever is reasonable and then try to move on to Will Smith. Those two arms shouldn't kill the farm system, shouldn't kill the payroll, but along with possible reinforcements, should help out our pen enormously. Plus, Givens, he's had a few blowups vs the Yankees that pretty much every pitcher has this year(9 of his 15 ER's) but a pretty strong history.

 

Agree, Stearns will get a bat and make sure our pen will be even more dominant than last year’s peak bullpen. We also have Perdomo and Rasmussen that possibly could reinforce with outside additions(givens Smith etc.)

[pacopete4]

Guys a bumb. Good non move once again

[The stache]

Guys a bumb. Good non move once again

 

I wouldn't call him a bum. He had a 2.90 ERA and 141 ERA + as recently as 2017. That's pretty darned good. He's also a Gold Glove winner four of the last five years. But his FIP jumped substantially, from 2.91 in 2015 when he won the CY Young, to 3.87, 3.79 and 3.69 the last three seasons. Still, even including his really disappointing 2016 season when his ERA + dropped to 86, he's got a 121 ERA+ over the last five years.

 

The thing with him is he's just not worth what he's commanding unless he's pitching near his career peak, and I'm not sure we'd ever see that again.