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- Date of Birth: May 13th, 1985
- 2017 line: 64 games, 55 IP, 3.11 ERA, 1.03 WHIP
- 2017 value: 1.0 bWAR, 1.1 fWAR
- 2017 salary: $200k
2017 Analysis
David Hernandez came over to us from the Angels at the trade deadline this season. He had pitched 38 games, 36.1 innings, with a nice 2.21 ERA for the Angels, but you’d be hard pressed to find much of a reaction from the Pit to this trade. Much of the comment section on the article was devoted to comments about how we were doomed because July was so terrible, Yu Darvish meant the Dodgers had for sure won the World Series, and a strange half argument about capitalism vs. socialism.
After he came over her, he hardly set the world on fire, but he wasn’t the worst option to pick up an inning here and there, either. He played 28 games, with 18.2 innings, 4.82 ERA (101 ERA+) and a sterling 15.00 K/BB ratio. At no point did he threaten the jobs of either Bradley or Hernandez, but I don’t think most of us were calling for him to be DFA’d either.
2018 Outlook
To be honest, this is where it gets tricky for me. I don’t think its unreasonable to assume that next season, no one will get the David Hernandez that the Angels got in the first half this year. However, his second half performance for the Diamondbacks was significantly worse than his career norms in most cases.
I think personally I would bring him back, especially if he only gets a moderate raise from what his salary was this season. We might have better options in the minors, but even if we only get a 101 ERA+ out of him next season, league average relievers aren’t exactly something you can have too many of. If we do bring him back, I’d probably expect a better ERA out of him, though the K/BB ratio will probably also decrease dramatically. He won’t be an All Star, but I believe he would be a solid choice to fill out the bullpen. Now we just wait and see if Hazen and Co. agree.