PT TOMORROW: NL East—Rainey Man
Feb 24 2021
Brad Hand (LHP, WAS) was signed to a one-year, 10.5M contract, and will figure to get most of the saves in the Nationals bullpen based on his successful track record as a closer. Hand is coming off a four-year stretch in which he’s posted 103 SV with a 2.61 ERA and 1.05 WHIP in 231 IP, and his BPVs during that time have been comfortably closer-worthy (175/167/166/174). But, as noted in the 2021 Baseball Forecaster, all is not perfect. His xERAs in that span have been rising (2.81, 2.83, 3.52, 3.53), while his fastball velocity has dipped more recently (93.5, 93.6, 92.7, 91.4), with a bigger drop in 2020. Moving away from the sinker last year made his FB% shoot up to 57%. Sure, some of those flies will revert to LD...
Almost!
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