The latest news and notes from the mound:
- Left-hander Drew Smyly came off the open market Monday when he and the Braves reached a one-year, $11MM agreement. That represents a nice raise for someone who signed a one-year, $4MM guarantee with San Francisco last winter, but the 31-year-old Smyly had his sights set even higher than the salary he’ll earn with the Braves. Smyly was requesting a contract in the three-year, $30MM neighborhood before inking his Braves pact, Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle reports. That’s an ambitious asking price for a hurler who has dealt with serious injuries throughout his career, and it’s worth noting Smyly struggled mightily as recently as 2019. To Smyly’s credit, though, he had a big-time bounce-back campaign this past season with a 3.42 ERA/2.01 FIP, 14.35 K/9 against 3.08 BB/9, and a 2.6 mph increase in average fastball velocity over 26 1/3 innings.
- With Smyly out of the picture for the Giants, Grant Brisbee of The Athletic takes a look at a few low-cost starters they could explore to replace him this winter. In Brisbee’s estimation, Chris Archer, Alex Wood, Matt Shoemaker and Anthony DeSclafani could make for intriguing reclamation projects for the Giants’ rotation. Nobody from that group looks especially exciting right now, but neither did Smyly at this time a year ago, and he proved to be a shrewd pickup for San Francisco.
- There are “several teams” that have shown interest in free-agent right-hander Chase Anderson, Robert Murray of Fansided writes. While Anderson has typically been a useful mid- to back-end starter since he debuted in 2014, the 32-year-old had a brutal 2020 in his lone season with the Blue Jays. Anderson concluded with 33 2/3 innings of 7.22 ERA/6.16 FIP ball, owing largely to a horrific 28.9 percent home run-to-fly ball ratio, though he did post impressive strikeout and walk numbers (10.16 K/9, 2.67 BB/9). Toronto had a $9.5MM option over Anderson for 2021, but it bought him out for $500K.
- As is the case with Anderson, there is more than one team interested in free-agent southpaw Martin Perez, according to Murray. Perez spent 2020 with the Red Sox and recorded a 4.50 ERA/4.88 FIP with 6.88 K/9 and 4.06 BB/9 across 62 frames. The Red Sox then bought out the 29-year-old for $500K in lieu of paying him a $6.85MM option for next season.
