Friday, November 27, 2015

Jesse Chavez is no David Price for Toronto… Thankfully


You’ll have to excuse me as I have been sick for almost a week now and I haven’t been writing much at all. Thank goodness for my back-logged stuff and all the content I had saved as a draft or the site would have likely gone quiet, and it’s never been quiet for a full day since its inception almost four years ago now. One of the key tidbits of news that I missed regarding an American League East rival of the New York Yankees was when the Toronto Blue Jays acquired Jesse Chavez, a right-handed starting pitcher from the Oakland Athletics. Chavez is a nice piece but thankfully for the Yankees he’s not David Price.

The Blue Jays sent Liam Hendricks, a now full-time relief pitcher who went 5-0 with a 2.92 ERA in 58 appearances in 2015, to Oakland in exchange for Chavez. Hendricks trade value has never been higher after a switch to the bullpen not only saw his ERA, WHIP, FIP and peripherals go down but his fastball velocity spike leading to a career-best 9.9 K/9 ratio. Hendricks is under team control through the 2020 season while Chavez is a free agent after the 2016 season.

Chavez has made 26 starts over the past two seasons as he has bounced between the A’s bullpen and rotation and has posted a combined 7-15 record with a 4.18 ERA. Chavez is 32-years old and is a former member of the Blue Jays as recently as 2012 so he’s no stranger to Toronto. Chavez was last seen sporting an 8.44 ERA in a Blue Jays uniform before being acquired for cash from the Athletics. Chavez is a definite win-now move for the Blue Jays but will he be enough? Will he be enough to replace the man he is essentially, for lack of a better word, replacing in David Price?

Price was money for Toronto posting this stat line:
Year Tm W L ERA G IP H R ER HR BB SO ERA+ FIP WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9
2015 ★ TOT 18 5 2.45 32 220.1 190 70 60 17 47 225 161 2.78 1.076 7.8 0.7 1.9 9.2
2015 DET 9 4 2.53 21 146.0 133 50 41 13 29 138 156 3.06 1.110 8.2 0.8 1.8 8.5
2015 TOR 9 1 2.30 11 74.1 57 20 19 4 18 87 172 2.22 1.009 6.9 0.5 2.2 10.5
Chavez on the other hand was anything but “money” in 2015:
Year Tm W L ERA G IP H R ER HR BB SO ERA+ FIP WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9
2015 OAK 7 15 4.18 30 157.0 164 78 73 18 48 136 96 3.85 1.350 9.4 1.0 2.8 7.8
Even with Marcus Stroman coming back last September to lead the Blue Jays to the ALCS Toronto doesn’t go as far without Price. Price was a godsend for Toronto and led the team down the stretch with clutch performance after clutch performance, especially against the New York Yankees. Toronto may have likely still made the playoffs without Price but bet your bottom dollar if the Jays have Chavez starting everything fifth day in the second half of the 2015 season and not Price they aren’t winning that AL East Division. Not by a long shot. 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)