Joely Rodriguez signed to 1+1 Contract

Ganthem

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Why am I getting whiffs of Diekman? He had a good K rate but his walk rate was 4.65. I guess it is worth taking a flyer on him, but I hope Cora doesn't get overly attached to him and keeps him in low leverage situations until he proves he can handle more.
 

LogansDad

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Why am I getting whiffs of Diekman? He had a good K rate but his walk rate was 4.65. I guess it is worth taking a flyer on him, but I hope Cora doesn't get overly attached to him and keeps him in low leverage situations until he proves he can handle more.
I mean, Diekman's K rate was over 6, and Joely let up far fewer HR's as well. That said, I admit that I don't really get this signing. Joely appears to have had two good 12+ game stretches, and one of them was 7 years ago. I assume it isn't a large contract, but 40 man spots are at a premium right now and I am not sure he is a big enough "upgrade" on the pen to be worth the spot.
 

E5 Yaz

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I assume it isn't a large contract, but 40 man spots are at a premium right now and I am not sure he is a big enough "upgrade" on the pen to be worth the spot.
To this point, it sure seems like this could be a signing made later in the offseason
 

Petagine in a Bottle

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The bullpen is taking shape.

Houck, Barnes, Schreiber, Brasier, Taylor, Rodriguez, German, Ort, Kelly? With the AAA guys as potential depth.

Bloom loves the one year deal with a club option.
 

JM3

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Contract details per Chris Cotillo:

Boston has signed lefty reliever Joely Rodríguez to a one-year contract with a club option for 2024, according to a team announcement. The deal guarantees $2 million with the option being valued at $4.25 million. Rodriguez will earn a $1.5 million base salary in 2023 with $2 million available in active roster bonuses; the Red Sox then have a $4.25 million club option or a $500k buyout decision for 2024. Each season includes $250,000 in performance bonuses, meaning the deal can max out a $8.25 million over two seasons.
https://www.masslive.com/redsox/2022/11/red-sox-make-first-free-agent-move-signing-reliever-joely-rodriguez-to-1-year-deal-with-option.html
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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To this point, it sure seems like this could be a signing made later in the offseason
Why does the timing of the signing matter? Maybe they think it's a deal they can't wait on or it'll just get more expensive.

The market hasn't moved at all so far. They're unlikely to be missing out on something else because of this signing.
 

JM3

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E5 Yaz

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Why does the timing of the signing matter? Maybe they think it's a deal they can't wait on or it'll just get more expensive.
True ... although, if they're going* to sign Bogaerts, Eovaldi, Senga, Jose Abreu, Haniger and trade for Scott Barlow, 40-man spots are at a premium
 

RedOctober3829

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The bullpen is taking shape.

Houck, Barnes, Schreiber, Brasier, Taylor, Rodriguez, German, Ort, Kelly? With the AAA guys as potential depth.

Bloom loves the one year deal with a club option.
They need an anchor type like Jansen to slot everybody where they need to be. Hopefully someone like Mata beats out Brasier because Brasier clearly does not deserve a spot.
 

lexrageorge

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Nothing wrong with adding bullpen help. Cheap enough and if the right player is available now, no reason to wait
 

Sandy Leon Trotsky

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Yeah I definitely don't see anything to dislike about this. I think it's a great strategy to accumulate guys like this and really see what sticks. Other than a few elite BP guys, it really is almost a random crapshoot on which BP arm will suddenly find lightning in a bottle for a year or two. I think Houck really needs to stick as a closer and build back from there. I really doubt Mata will be given a spot even if he kills it in Spring Training. Best case scenario with him in the bullpen is he's destroying the competition in AAA and gets a mid-season call-up for a spot start or two then when Pitcher X comes back off the 15-day DL, he gets dropped into the pen and shines there too.
I really like Crawford as a potential great relief pitcher and hope he'll be given (if earned in ST, since I don't think him starting games in AAA will do much for his long term outlook) a spot. Barnes (either getting new and harder to detect sticky stuff or by just getting his arm healthy) looked great after his return. I'm not bullish on the BP but I'm not pessimistic. Somewhere in the middle. Getting one good K guy with low BB rate would help.
 

Pablo's TB Lover

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While frustrating to only see these minor signings, we know many of the high-priced FAs are going to wait it out until near Christmas-time at the earliest. So it may not be a bad thing to shore up the perimeter of the roster to be totally certain what to offer the big-ticket prizes. I like the player, so get him if the getting's good.
 

mauidano

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Middle relief is such a tenous position with a LOT of coming and going. I'll reserve my excitement for Bogey.
 

chawson

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Joely's FIP last 2 yrs:
3.43 / 3.23
xFIP last 2 yrs:
3.41 / 3.46

Good GB rates too.
Doesn't give up homers either.

Among 131 relievers to throw 100 IP from 2020-22, Joely's 0.58 HR/9 was 17th lowest, a smidge better than Collin McHugh and Rafael Montero. In fact,

Rafael Montero '20-22: 135.1 IP, 23.6 K%, 8.1 BB%, 50.5 GB%, 0.60 HR/9, 3.23 FIP, 4.06 ERA
Joely Rodriguez '20-22: 109.1 IP, 25.5 K%, 10.3 BB%, 55.7 GB%, 0.58 HR/9, 3.14 FIP, 4.28 ERA

Montero signs for 3/$34.5 million.
Rodriguez signs for 1/$2 million.
 

bosox188

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Empire Sports Media did a deep dive yesterday on why the Yankees should sign him back, which included these splits showing when he increased his changeup usage:



https://empiresportsmedia.com/new-york-yankees/the-yankees-should-reunite-with-this-talented-bullpen-arm/
I like their use of Cameron Grove's PitchingBot model, I'm a fan of that as well as the Stuff+ model that The Athletic's Eno Sarris uses. Something they don't get into in that article is how his slider rates, and his platoon splits. PitchingBot hates his slider, gives it Overall/Stuff/Command grades of 45/45/50 (this is on a 20-80 grade scale), which is a bit unusual for a reliever to have a shitty slider these days. Makes me wonder if the Sox plan to use him as an all-around reliever rather than a lefty specialist. His platoon splits were fairly even in terms of wOBA last year, but his K-BB% and xFIP were much better against lefties, despite lacking a quality slider.

Why am I getting whiffs of Diekman? He had a good K rate but his walk rate was 4.65. I guess it is worth taking a flyer on him, but I hope Cora doesn't get overly attached to him and keeps him in low leverage situations until he proves he can handle more.
He's not quite as bad as Diekman command-wise. PitchingBot had Diekman's overall command grade at a 40 last year, Joely's was a bit above average at 55. The Stuff+ model (which has a different scale, where 100 is average) also had Joely's command slightly above average at 101.4. Presumably if his improved changeup in the last couple months had been there the full season, those numbers would have been higher. But one thing that's been observed in those pitching models is that while the Stuff metric tends to be "sticky" year to year, the Command metric can be a lot more variable. Which is in agreement with the eye test on a lot of relievers - it's often a coin flip how they're going to perform season to season, and when they go bad it's usually because their command's gone to hell.
 

Daniel_Son

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Doesn't give up homers either.

Among 131 relievers to throw 100 IP from 2020-22, Joely's 0.58 HR/9 was 17th lowest, a smidge better than Collin McHugh and Rafael Montero. In fact,

Rafael Montero '20-22: 135.1 IP, 23.6 K%, 8.1 BB%, 50.5 GB%, 0.60 HR/9, 3.23 FIP, 4.06 ERA
Joely Rodriguez '20-22: 109.1 IP, 25.5 K%, 10.3 BB%, 55.7 GB%, 0.58 HR/9, 3.14 FIP, 4.28 ERA

Montero signs for 3/$34.5 million.
Rodriguez signs for 1/$2 million.
If that holds this year, that's a damn good signing.
 

jon abbey

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Joely was essentially a LOOGY in his half season in NY (his 2021 splits against RHH were awful), but he looks like he was much better against them last year.
 

Sandy Leon Trotsky

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The SoxProspects guys seem to think it’s very possible Darwin gets DFA’d, so yes.
Will not shed a tear. He seemed to really have some potential when he first showed up. Great K stuff but could just never control it and it seemed to start slipping away the more he pitched.
I also wouldn't be surprised if he signed on to Pittsburgh or Tampa or somewhere and turned into a dominant bullpen arm for a year or two. Seriously... the difference in talent between a guy like Darwinzon and Rafael Montero is minimal. Just one teensy little tweak away from everything falling into place- or out of place for the good guys.
 

jon abbey

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Chris Hatfield of SP notes that Rodriguez has just over 3 years of service time, so he’d still be under team control for a year even after the option year is picked up. Won’t be a FA until 2026.
I don’t think it works this way, although not positive.

Ah, here you go:

“Rodríguez's contract allows him to become a free agent when the deal expires.”

https://amp.sunherald.com/sports/article269152652.html