2017 Arizona Diamondbacks Review: #23, Randall Delgado

Date of Birth: February 9, 1990

2017 Line: 26 games, 62.2 innings, 3.59 ERA, 60:14 K:BB

2017 Value: 0.6 bWAR

2017 Salary: $1.7M

SnakePit Rating: 5.53

2017 Analysis

Delgado was unquestionably the long man of the Diamondbacks bullpen, with 13 of his 21 relief appearances being more than one inning long. Highlights from Delgado’s season:

• An 11.1 inning scoreless streak from April 28 to May 14, including two 3 inning outings against the Nationals and Rockies.
• The second save of his career, a 3 inning save against San Diego on May 19.
• Delgado made 4 starts for the D-Backs when Taijuan Walker went down with a blister. He pitched admirably, allowing one earned run in three of the 4 starts. There were even some fans who believed that Delgado may take Corbin’s spot in the rotation when Walker returned.

The 27-year-old would go down with elbow inflammation on July 16. It seemed that he would be able to return toward the beginning of September, but suffered a flexor strain during a rehab game that ended his season.

The long relief role was left in shambles after Delgado’s departure, with nobody really stepping into his shoes. T.J. McFarland pitched multiple innings in a handful of games, but was never very reliable. Nobody could be counted on for 2-3 innings of shutout baseball.

2018 Outlook

MLB Trade Rumors projects that Randall Delgado will make $2.5M through the arbitration process. I’m leaning toward tendering Delgado a contract, but I could be swayed the other way. Delgado has not been all that consistent throughout his career, with 2017 being only his second year with a sub-4 ERA. However, 2.5 million dollars is very cheap if he performs like he did in 2017. Additionally, non-tendering Delgado to save the 2 and a half million won’t get the D-Backs very far. I doubt that a couple million is what makes the difference between landing or not landing, say, J.D. Martinez.