The Padres agreed on a free agent agreement Mark Melancon, reports Dennis Lin of The Athletic (Twitter link). The deal with Melancon, an ISE Baseball client, becomes official once he has physically passed.
Melancon, next month 36, adds a former All-Star closer to an already deep Friars bull. He gives skipper Jayce Tingler another option to join the ninth innings Drew Pomeranz and Emilio Heidense as closer candidates in San Diego. Based on his recent work, Melancon could very well jump to the front of the line as the favorite for saves.
Melancon just concluded last season with a four-year, $ 62 million contract, which was briefly the record of an all-time relief. (Both Aroldis Chapman and Kenley Jansen That was the highest point within weeks of Melancon signing.) The deal did not yield exact dividends for the Giants, as Melancon struggled with injuries in 2017 and 2018, but he bounced back with a strong performance in 2019 and has been pretty strong this past season. -plus to a trade to the Braves.
Melancon bagged 43 2/3 overs with Atlanta, scoring 22 saves while posting a strong elimination and running percentage (26.3 percent and 6.2 percent, respectively). He is also one of the leading groundball pitchers of the match, witnessing a huge score of 61.4 percent over the past two years.
Despite the success in Atlanta, there are some red flags around Melancon. In addition to throwing the whole of 2021 at the age of 36, the average fast speed of 91.7 km / h was the second lowest point in his career last year, while his rate of 8.7 percent swing-pass’. was a low career. He still excelled by making poor contact and had to benefit from a generally strong defensive domestic defense.
The Friars already had not only an overcrowded but also relatively immobile bullpen (from a grid-flexible point of view). None of Pomeranz, Austin Adams, Pierce Johnson, Dan Altavilla, Craig Tribes or Javy Guerra can be chosen to the minors. Pagans have options, but certainly do not stand a chance of being sent off, and Tim Hill (who also has options) is one of the three leftists of the team. It may be difficult for the Padres to continue with the outside option Guerra, a converted shortstop who has not had much success in Triple-A or the Majors yet, but they may not want to give him up, given its average of the heater. better than 98 km / h.
These are, of course, the kind of decisions that play-off caliber clubs are forced to make when adding improvements, and the Padres have strengthened themselves just as much. After the post-season was made for the first time in 2020 under the newly promoted president of baseball operations AJ Preller, the Padres have people like: Yu Darvish, Blake Snell, Joe Musgrove a KBO superstar Ha-Seong Kim this winter while also being re-signed Jurickson Profar. Melancon is the latest and perhaps last piece of an active off-season that has deepened an already talented team that is increasingly capable of giving the World Champion Dodgers money in the NL West.