Resop Hits Waivers

The Braves called up RHP Chris Resop back in June, mainly in order to avoid losing him to an out clause in his contract. Resop appeared in only one Major League game, on June 15th, before missing time due to an oblique injury. Apparently, the Braves feel as if they need his 40-man roster spot, as they have requested outright waivers, according to Dave O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

It’s easy to get confused about what kind of waivers mean what (I know I was), so we’ll let Biz of Baseball explain outright waivers here.

A club that wishes to remove a player from its 40-man roster but keep him in its minor-league system must first place him on outright or special waivers. Outright waivers are not revocable, so a player claimed on outright waivers may not be pulled back by his original club. When a player in the middle of a guaranteed contract is claimed on waivers, the claiming club pays $20,000 and a pro-rated portion of the league minimum salary, with the original club remaining responsible for paying the rest of the money due under the contract. A club may not request outright waivers on a player with a complete no-trade clause or on a player ten-and-five rights.

So it appears that Chris Resop will be up for grabs. It’s not terribly surprising that a 28 year old with 27 innings of MLB experience and -0.2 WAR in that time is put on waivers, but Resop isn’t your typical player. He has moved from outfielder to reliever and now to starter in his time in the minor leagues, and he looked phenomenal in AAA this season. Resop struck out 87 batters in just under 80 innings for AAA Gwinnett while inducing grounders on just under 50% of his balls in play. His 2.78 FIP was deflated by a low HR rate, but it’s hard to argue with the strikeout numbers, even with a walk rate just over 3.

Unfortunately, none of the systems we use here at FanGraphs have projections for Resop except for Marcel, which projects the league average due to a nearly complete lack of MLB information. As such, it’s hard to put a concrete value on Resop, due to his lack of time as a starter and his advanced age for the league. But it’s also hard to imagine a situation where all 30 teams can’t find a 25-man roster spot for a player with a solid fastball and those kinds of numbers in AAA. If Resop clears waivers, some GMs are going to have some explaining to do.