Does Marlins rookie Nick Anderson hurt Craig Kimbrel’s case?

One of the hardest things to do in baseball is price yourself out of the market.

Sure, it seemed like a lot of top free agents managed to pull that off but there always one franchise with the Cold Stone “gotta have it” mentality that eventually caves in. It took all winter but eventually they always get their money.

Except Craig Kimbrel.

Kimberly posted a 2.74 ERA with a 0.99 WHIP, 96 strikeouts and 31 walks over 62 1/3 innings for the World Series winning Boston Red Sox last season and still doesn’t have a new team. Somehow he and starting pitcher Dallas Keuchel were the only ones to price themselves out.

The Marlins traded Brian Schales to the Twins for Nick Anderson.

There’s indeed a premium on closers. Over the offseason, Zach Britton signed with the New York Yankees for three years, $39M and David Robertson signed with the Phillies for two years, $23M. A year before that, Wade Davis went to Colorado for three years, $52M.

Kimbrel reportedly wanted five years and $100M. According to Ken Rosenthal, those demands have been lowered to figures similar to the aforementioned relievers. 

However, does the scorching start of Miami Marlins pitcher Nick Anderson hurt his case?

Anderson was acquired in a subtle offseason trade by the Marlins for a Double-A infielder. In his fist eight games, he has allowed only one earned run and an astounding 16 strikeouts in only 7.2 innings pitched. His MLB debut came on Opening Day, where he showed up to get a random Rockies batter out. Since then, he made seven consecutive relief appearances in which he struck out multiple batters, which is a franchise record.

To take minimal means to acquire this sort of production must hurt the high contract cause of Kimbrel. The Marlins took advantage of another team’s roster crunch and struck gold. The last time they saw this kind of production from a reliever was Kyle Barraclough in 2016, striking out 88 batters in 60 innings. Anderson had that season in Triple-A Rochester last year and manager Don Mattingly said that’s what caught the eye of his analytics team.

Anderson is on pace for 152 strikeouts in 67.2 innings in his rookie season. 28 years old might be an old age to finally break into the big leagues but Mattingly said on Sunday that sometimes that the perfect age for a pitcher to break out, especially in the bullpen.

“I think there’s a number of guys like that out there that you see that started out as starters and as time goes they refined their mix or however they use their pitches,” Mattingly said. “It seems like that’s that age where you get some six-year guys like that, that are still power stuff, and just end up in roster situations with other teams.”

However, there is a concern with relief usage. Mattingly intimated that there are times that a reliever on a good season can come at the price of a high usage rate and that could lead to a poor season the next year.    

“Bullpens are always one of those situations where you’re kinda riding what’s going on,” Mattingly said. “It’s hard to judge year to year.”

The Marlins has managed to put a good bullpen together with the additions of Anderson, Tyler Kinley, who is also a 28-year-old rookie, and Austin Brice. They replaced Nick Wittgren, Barraclough and Brad Ziegler, who were solid in their own right but not in a way that totally stood out.

Before Barraclough was Steve Cishek, who was super solid during his first four seasons with the Marlins (2011-2014) before the two were swapped for each other in St. Louis in 2015. Miami didn’t miss a beat with that trade.

The Marlins went into spring training not being able to figure out who their closer will be. They signed Sergio Romo to a one-year deal and entrusted him with the ninth inning a few times, along with Adam Conley and Drew Steckenrider, two sides of the same coin. At some point, Anderson will get into save situations and further add to his value.

The idea that a team like the Marlins can unearth top notch relief pitching on the cheap thanks to shrewd scouting and analytics would most certainly be used against Kimbrel’s case of a long term, $100M contract. Eventually, some team will sign him to a deal similar to previous elite closers at some point in the season but a major deal for that position may never come to fruition.

Tony Capobianco is the lead photographer for FiveReasonsSports.com