Joe Blanton Finally Finds a Home

Before today, the last post containing information about Joe Blanton on the baseball news aggregator MLB Trade Rumors went up on February 2nd. He was one of the seven remaining players in the right-handed reliever section of the site’s list of free agents, alongside players like Jerome Williams and Jonathan Papelbon who have fallen victim to the passage of time. Blanton is 36 years old, with 1723.1 regular-season innings’ worth of mileage on his right arm. Our Depth Charts projection system looked into its cybernetic crystal ball and foresaw just 0.7 WAR for him this year. In a way, it’s not surprising that Blanton didn’t have an employer until today, when he signed with the Nationals.

But it’s also quite strange that he couldn’t find a deal until now, and that he didn’t find more than $4 million for a year (and, in typical Washington fashion, $3 million of that sum is deferred). He’s been just as valuable as Shawn Kelley these last two years, ever since he was reborn from the pitching ashes as a reliever. Blanton’s career was through, collapsed under the groaning weight of home runs surrendered. He didn’t appear in a big-league game in 2014, and then reappeared as a member of the Royals’ bullpen the following year. He’s been a valuable relief workhorse ever since.

Perhaps because of Blanton’s age and underlying metrics, teams seemingly weren’t stumbling over themselves to sign him this time around. His 3.33 FIP from 2016 doesn’t exactly scream relief ace, but he still has a nasty slider, and should be a valuable asset for Washington in the mid-to-late innings.

I’d mentioned Blanton as an option for Washington just over a month ago. The move all but confirms that Kelley or Koda Glover will be given the first shot at taking the closer’s job. That may not seem ideal, but perhaps a good way to compensate for not having a traditional “elite” closer (if we’re going to adhere to the traditional system of bullpen management) is to stack the earlier innings with competent arms to leap into the breach once the starter exits. Washington’s rotation figures to be made up largely of good pitchers, pitchers who should be pitching into and past the sixth inning with something like regularity. A good bullpen is eminently useful when trying to contend for a division title, and then a World Series in turn, but that’s why we have in-season trades. Barring massive breakouts from Glover and/or Blake Treinen, Washington’s probably going to be in the market for a reliever once again this summer. Given how strong the rest of their roster is, that’s not the end of the world.

The Nats are going to be pretty darn good this year, and they just got even better. This is one more inning that about which they won’t have to sweat too much. Travis Sawchik recently wrote here about the stars-and-scrubs method of roster-building. The Nationals’ bullpen seems to be the product of an opposite strategy, a through-and-through collection of good-but-not-great arms who should, if nothing else, provide consistency. Once they theoretically add that high-octane arm, it could be one of the best groups in the game. And, as usual, there will be guys available. David Robertson is still out there, and who knows where the Dellin Betances situation is headed. The Nationals still have the prospects to make a deal happen.

This is a nice end to what’s already been a productive offseason for Washington. You can debate the cost of the Adam Eaton trade, sure, but the bottom line is that they’ve added good complementary pieces to an already strong roster. And, they may not even be done yet. Word is that they’re interested in bringing in Angel Pagan, who’s still a productive player in his own right, and would be a good insurance policy for Jayson Werth.

The Nationals, as usual, are going to be dangerous. Their fight with the Mets for the NL East crown is going to be a messy, muddy, and bitter slugfest. That’s just how we like our baseball. Joe Blanton finally has a job, after two years of newfound reliability. That’s something to be happy about.