Veni, Vidi, Vici… or in this case here came Shaw, and he can help the Colorado Rockies conquer another playoff spot.
On Tuesday Colorado nabbed 30-year-old reliever, Bryan Shaw. The Rockies and the righty reached a $27 million contract over three years. Shaw has made more appearances since 2014 than any other pitcher in baseball at 308 games pitched. In those 283.2 innings, Shaw has hurled to the tune of a 3.08 ERA, 1.192 WHIP, 8.2 K/9 and has given up less than one homer per nine while pitching for the playoff-contending Cleveland Indians.
The former Diamondback headed to the Rock and Roll Capital of the World after the 2012 season as part of the Trevor Bauer-Didi Gregorius-Shin-Soo Choo three-way trade.
As pointed out in the numbers he has been nails for an extended period of time for an extended amount of innings. When mentioning relievers as volatile crapshoots, Shaw is about as safe a bet the Rockies could’ve made for a player with limited experience at altitude.
Albeit in a small sample size, he has essentially been himself in nine games at Coors Field (7.1 IP,). Shaw has tossed seven strikeouts while allowing seven hits and two walks.
There’s also precedent for former members of the Tribe having success in the purple pinstripes. Rafael Betancourt was arguably the best reliever in Rockies history and his numbers—where he spent parts of even seasons exclusively with Cleveland—translated straight to 20th and Blake.
Going back to Shaw himself. In 2017, after adjusting for park factors, he was pretty much the right-handed version of Jake McGee but with 20 more innings pitched. Which is really good.
That said, if Shaw is what he has been known to be for the entirety of his career this is a much-needed addition to the Rockies bullpen. He’s only recorded 11 saves so it is unlikely Colorado has just inked their closer. It’s more likely, and a better sign of where the Rockies are headed, that they just invested $9 million on the eighth inning, which is right in line with the Chicago Cubs and many other big spenders.
It’s not out of the realm that the Rockies go to the market and sign a closer as well as another setup man.
Under any circumstances this a good deal, both in terms of value and talented added. But given the nature of the Rockies needs as well as their contention window, this is a terrific deal.
Yet for some reason, if it’s not a great deal on paper, the inflation of the reliever market rises so quickly that what was at first thought to be a bad three-year contract to Boone Logan just a few years ago for the Rockies became great in both price and because the way he turned around his pitching.
Once again, Jeff Bridich addressed a major need, just as he did at the deadline, and did so in a safe and smart manner. And if anything has been proven in baseball the past 10 years, it’s that smart money beats lots of money.
