This time last year, the talks on Keuchel were much different. No front office was really budging on giving what Keuchel was asking for. Going back to December 28th, 2018, Steve Adams reported that Keuchel was looking for a five-year deal when, at the time, MLB Trade Rumors was predicting a four-year deal at $82M. But no one was biting. Not the Nationals, nor the Reds, not the Phillies or the Brewers. Every week it seemed like there was a new team being rumored to have spoken with Keuchel’s camp, but no deals were made. Needless to say, this offseason has been very different for Keuchel and just about every other player on the market. Once the 2019 trade deadline passed and Keuchel was no-longer carrying a dark cloud of draft pick compensation with him, teams pounced. Finally being acquired by the Atlanta Braves on June 7th, the news made a few fantasy baseball owners quiver with excitement. The Braves signed Keuchel for a 1-year, even though it was more like a half a year, deal at $13M. Now, we can look back and see how he did after all the rumors and contracts and headlines and hopes and dreams of fans just waiting for their front offices to make the announcement that they finally added a much needed arm. When Braves fans celebrated on June 6th, their team sat at 36-26, just a half a game behind the Washington Nationals. Finishing the year at 97-65 with a first place finish in the NL-East makes it sound like the addition of Keuchel was a good one. So, why let him go? It would be hard to measure Keuchel’s impact on a young Braves rotation in just half of a season. But, without diving too much into statistics, you would like to think that a veteran pitcher joining a young and talented rotation would help. If anything, Keuchel helped alleviate some of the fast growing innings accumulated by the young group. With only half a season, Keuchel soaked up 112.2 innings with a 7.72 K/9 ratio and an ERA of 3.75. But, considering the ups and downs of Mike Foltynewicz, the Braves were lucky to add an arm that finished with a sub 4.00 ERA. Here are the stat lines from Baseball-Reference.com for these four pitchers: Though Keuchel didn’t perform the way us quivering fantasy owners might have thought, a Dallas move to Chicago really makes great sense for the White Sox, now showing that they are ready to win. Here are the ones that jump out to me: 1. Keuchel and Grandal: The potential for a great relationship Great reporting over at FanGraphs.com by Tony Wolfe shows just how important Grandal’s pitch framing abilities may be to an in-the-zone type of player like Keuchel. Getting the calls on those border-line pitches may a difference maker when pitching in Chicago. 2. White Sox Defensive and Keuchel the Groundballer Keuchel finished the year with a ground ball percentage of 60.1. That’s first in the major leagues among pitchers with at least 100 IP. Though the White Sox defensive metrics don’t jump off the page (bottom 10 for most team fielding statistics) they did perform the best in the league at FanGraph’s double play runs saved between, mostly, Tim Anderson and Danny Mendick. If the White Sox can tighten up the defense and utilize the infield shift effectively, Keuchel’s speciality of putting the ball on the ground should translate to wins, though that might be a big ask. However, don’t forget how good of a field Keuchel is himself. If you’re going to put the ball on the ground, you should be able to field it. Among pitcher’s with at least 100 IP, Keuchel finished 2nd in DRS (Defensive Runs Saved) with 5. 3. Keuchel as the Old Vet It would be too hard to measure whether or not Keuchel has any influence on young pitchers. But looking at WAR of young starting Braves pitchers before and after Keuchel’s addition to the Braves shows that he simply didn’t hurt anyone. Both Soroka and Fried continued to add value to their team. It would be so interesting to see how these numbers shaped out, had Keuchel joined the Braves at the start of the season, but then again, there might not be so many headlines and stuff to write about had that been the case. For now, the Chicago White Sox look to improve on their 72-89 record in 2020 and us fans will be watching to see the influence Keuchel actually has on another young rotation. Giolito, Lopez and now Gonzalez and Keuchel throwing to Grandal? White Sox fans have a lot to be excited about.
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