Coulombing up That Hill | FanGraphs Baseball

Hey, and welcome to a different installment of Transaction Evaluation: Reliever Roundup Version. Would you want to begin with a joke? What’s that? You’re foaming on the mouth as a result of the considered beginning with a joke is so thrilling that you simply’ve misplaced all management of your bodily features? I’m so glad we’re on the identical web page. Right here we go:

Knock, knock.

Okay, now that is the place you say: Who’s there? Nice job.

The left-handed center reliever with a fastball that averages just below 91 mph, who put up 0.5 WAR final season and on Tuesday signed a one-year, $3 million deal to return to his previous workforce in his age-35 season.

Alright, now say it with me: Which one?

Thanks in your assist. I believe we nailed it. On Tuesday, Jon Heyman of the New York Publish reported that Danny Coulombe, who spent the 2020-2022 seasons with the Twins, had agreed to return to Minnesota. Bobby Nightengale of the Minnesota Star-Tribune reported that the deal is for one yr and a $3 million. Shortly thereafter, ESPN’s Jeff Passan introduced that Tim Hill, who joined the Yankees in June 2024, could be returning to the Bronx on a $2.5 million deal, plus a $3 million membership choice for 2026 with a $350,000 buyout clause. Wait, I in all probability shouldn’t have defined the joke.

Tim Hill

Beginning with New York, the Yankees actually wanted Hill again. He’s the one left-handed pitcher of their bullpen. Through the workforce’s 2024 World Sequence run, he ran a 1.08 ERA over 10 appearances and eight 1/3 innings. The workforce’s solely different left-handed relievers had been Tim Mayza, who threw 2 1/3 innings and is now a Pirate, and Nestor Cortes, who’s famously a starter, definitely didn’t look snug in his two postseason reduction appearances, and is now a Brewer.

Hill can also be coming off one of the best stretch of his profession. He began the 2024 season with the White Sox, operating a 5.87 ERA over 27 appearances earlier than being launched in June. The Yankees signed him two days later, and he completed the season with a 2.05 ERA over 44 innings and 34 appearances. What was totally different in New York? For starters, an honest little bit of luck. Hill allowed a .436 BABIP in Chicago and a .238 BABIP in New York. Nonetheless, the Yankees additionally made some drastic modifications to Hill’s pitch combine. After arriving in New York, he drastically decreased his four-seamer utilization and ditched his slider nearly fully.

Hill doesn’t miss bats and he doesn’t miss the plate, which implies tons of balls in play. He’s a real side-armer with an arm angle of -20 levels, and in September and October, he leaned (even additional) into that id, throwing his sinker 80% of the time, his four-seamer 18% of the time, and his slider simply 2% of the time. Though batters made louder contact than that they had throughout his time in Chicago, Hill’s already big groundball fee rose to 70% with the Yankees. He allowed 117 groundballs and simply 18 fly balls; in seven of his 35 common season appearances, each single ball in play that he surrendered was a grounder. You need to think about the Yankees are hoping to run that technique proper again, encouraging Hill to lean on the sinker and let opponents beat the ball into the bottom for so long as it really works.

Danny Coulombe

Coulombe returns to the Twins after two seasons with the Orioles, and the necessity he fills is each bit as dire. The one different lefties the Twins have are Brent Headrick, who has three massive league innings to his identify, and Kody Funderburk, who ran a 6.49 ERA in 2024. RosterResource doesn’t have Headrick or Funderburk of their projected bullpen. As you may recall, the Minnesota bullpen’s 4.89 ERA within the second half was the third worst in baseball and a serious purpose that the workforce crashed out of playoff competition (although it’s value noting that the bullpen’s 3.72 xFIP was really seventh greatest). The necessity is extra basic, nevertheless, as Coulombe is the one participant the Twins have signed to a serious league deal this offseason. If that sounds considerably acquainted, you may be pondering of the commerce deadline, throughout which era Minnesota was battling for its life and made only one transfer, buying and selling for reliever Trevor Richards. To place it bluntly, that is an infuriating time to be a Twins fan.

It’s laborious to know precisely what to anticipate from Coulombe. He has a protracted observe file of excellence, with a 2.69 ERA over the past 5 seasons, 2.92 throughout his three seasons in Minnesota and a pair of.56 throughout his two in Baltimore. Nonetheless, he’s solely thrown 130 1/3 main league innings over that interval, a mean of simply 26 per season. In 2024, Coulombe was operating a 2.42 ERA and a pair of.86 FIP when his season was stopped in its tracks in June for surgical procedure to take away bone chips from his elbow. He returned to make 4 scoreless appearances in September, however his fastball velocity dropped to only under 89 mph. The Orioles let him stroll somewhat than decide up a $4 million choice. It’s laborious to think about the Twins signing him with out feeling safe within the data that his velocity would bounce again as much as the 91-92 vary, however it’s definitely one thing to observe for because the season begins. Coloumbe additionally spent a lot of the 2022 season on the injured checklist as a result of a hip impingement and missed time with biceps tendonitis in 2023. Well being might be a significant factor in figuring out whether or not the one main league signing the Twins have made this offseason really has an influence.

There’s additionally some query about simply what sort of pitcher Coulombe might be with the Twins. Upon becoming a member of the Orioles in 2023, Coulombe traded his slider for a sweeper with an additional eight inches of horizontal break, ditched his changeup fully, and launched a cutter that changed his four-seamer as his most-used pitch. In 2024, Coulombe threw both the cutter or the sweeper almost 60% of the time. If there’s one factor the Twins love, it’s a four-seamer – they’ve completed within the prime 4 in four-seamer share in every of the final three seasons – so it will likely be attention-grabbing to see whether or not they encourage Coulombe to stay with what labored for him in Baltimore, or get him to return to what, you realize, labored for him in Minnesota.

That’s the tough factor about Coulombe; his efficiency has been constant whereas his availability has been something however. Each pitcher presents some stage of damage danger, and Coulombe’s stuff and profile make him not only a nice match for Minnesota, however a desperately wanted addition. All the identical, if the workforce is basically solely going to make one addition, may it have been wiser to decide on a safer choice?