The deal comes with a spring coaching invitational and doesn’t assure he’ll make the Opening Day roster. Cullum, 34, is certainly not the pitcher he was 3 1/2 years in the past. Final season, in 47 innings with the Colorado Rockies, he pitched typically and completed with a 5.74 ERA. His strike price (14.9 p.c) was its lowest since changing into a full-time reliever.
Previously, Normal Supervisor Mike Rizzo wished so as to add Colomé for a title push. These circumstances might be thought of straight reverse.
But when Colomey is stable in February and March, Washington may acquire an skilled arm for little price. With Tanner Rainey nonetheless recovering from Tommy John surgical procedure and Andres Machado off the 40-man roster after being named for project this month, there’s room to remain on the Nationals roster.
Kyle Finnegan, Carl Edwards Jr., Hunter Harvey, Erasmo Ramirez and Thad Ward ought to all have stable factors. Then? Veterans like Colomé and Sean Doolittle have an opportunity to tug a chair, particularly as a result of a number of the youthful pitchers — Mason Thompson, Victor Arano, Jordan Weems — have choices left, which means they’ll transfer between the majors and the minors all through 2023 with out occurring waivers. Corey Abbott and Paulo Espino may be within the combine as multi-role relievers.
At his finest, Colum, a local of Santo Domingo within the Dominican Republic, was nearer to the Tampa Bay Rays. He was an All-Star in 2016 and leads the majors with 47 saves a yr later. Through the pandemic-shortened season, he labored 22 minutes for the White Sox and struck out solely two runs. With the Minnesota Twins in 2021, Colome had catastrophe in April earlier than recovering for a median of a yr. Then with the Rockies his numbers declined, although the peak and dimensions at Coors Discipline appeared to play a restricted half in that.
in Colom Divide the home in 2022: 106 batters confronted, .299 batting common, .349 on-base proportion, .526 slugging proportion (0.875 on-base plus slugging proportion.)
And his street splits: 109 hitters confronted, .301 batting common, 0.389 on-base proportion, 441 slugging proportion (.830 OPS).
Throwing to Colorado, Colomy threw his energy 84 p.c of the time, In line with FanGraphs. This was 14 proportion factors greater than his highest common for your entire season. The four-seam fastball, the second and just one, has been squandered by opponents with a 1.059 proportion level.
In latest springs, the Nationals have used heavy righties (Wander Suero, Will Harris) as an excuse for not having a whole lot of lefties relievers, saying they like how their cutouts work inside on left-handed batters. And whereas that will seem to be a half-finished rationalization for a roster flaw, supervisor Dave Martinez may quickly enlist Colome to the trigger. With lower than three weeks to go till pitchers and catchers report, Matt Cronin, 25, and Jose Ferrer, 22, are the one left-handers within the 40. Neither has appeared within the majors.
One other notice on Colomé: He averaged 23.6 seconds between pitches final yr, tying him for 11. Slowest tempo amongst certified shooters. This tempo meter from Statcast measures the time that elapses between the sound of 1 notice and the subsequent. Nevertheless, Main League Baseball’s new 15-second pitch clock will start as quickly because the pitcher receives the ball from the catcher and ends as quickly as he initiates his supply.
Colome’s common ‘parabolic timer’ cadence was 17.6 seconds in 2022. So if he makes it to the nationwide staff, he’ll have extra adaptation to do.