Baltimore Orioles: How Much Sense Does Dan Straily Make?

Now free to sign with any team, will the Baltimore Orioles look to add veteran RHP Dan Straily to their starting rotation?

As the Miami Marlins continue their own extensive rebuild and find ways to bring their young talent up to the major leagues, veteran RHP Dan Straily found himself squeezed from the starting rotation, despite being a very cheap, reliable backend to their starting rotation. Should the Baltimore Orioles take a look?

After failing to secure a trade partner, the Miami Marlins ultimately released Straily last week, the 30-year-old is free to sign with any team. Per Jon Heyman, Straily has received major league offers from three American League teams and will make his final decision in the coming days.

Are the Baltimore Orioles one of those teams? There have been no confirmed reports or discussion about Straily possibly joining the Orioles, we’re just throwing this out there to see if he would be a good fit for this organization.

The answer to that question is- yes. Straily won’t come at a high price tag and if he is 2016 or 2017 Dan Straily, he can become yet another potential trade piece for the Orioles at the deadline who could possibly bring in another lottery ticket type prospect that the O’s are in need of. Let’s be honest, while this farm system isn’t terrible anymore, there are positions where you won’t find future major league talent. Finding more prospects like Jean Carlos Encarnacion (high risk/high reward) and having them develop in a Mike Elias system will make this rebuild all the more fun and promising.

Dan Straily’s Fit With The Baltimore Orioles.

I’m not going to grandstand for Dan Straily and if he doesn’t sign with the Baltimore Orioles, I won’t give him a second thought, unless he’s an opposing pitcher at some point this season. But I do want to talk through the possibility.

His fastball velocity isn’t impressive, averaging 90 mph the past two seasons. However, his four-seam fastball does generate a high spin-rate, ranking in the 70th percentile last season, according to Baseball Savant.

Straily uses his four-seamer and slider about 75% of the time, limiting hitters to a .194 average with his slider and generating a 32% whiff rate. After a career-high 22% K-rate in 2017, Straily’s strikeout production fell by about 3%. The percentage of pitches he threw in the zone dropped, as did his chase rate, both falling below league average.

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Without the ability to hit his spots, hitters were patient and hit Straily harder than ever before. More than 41% of batted balls were classified as “hard-hit” balls, one of the highest percentages in all of baseball and about a 12% increase from his hard-hit rate in 2018.

What if he can fix his pitch location issues and regain his value? Straily is a fly-ball pitcher who isn’t going to blow a fastball by you, meaning if he were to pitch in the American League East and not fix what went wrong last season, it won’t be pretty. Opponents have recorded 82 home runs against Straily over the past three years.

He’s made one career appearance at Camden Yards, back in 2013 when he pitched for the Oakland A’s. Straily failed to make it out of the fourth inning and gave up home runs to Adam Jones and Brian Roberts.

Does he want to pitch at Camden Yards for a team going full rebuild? I don’t know. I do know that I like the fit. Have I spent too much time thinking about Dan Straily? Absolutely. I leave it up to you, Orioles fans. Are you in on Dan Straily or are you fine with continuing on with the current process of evaluating what’s on the roster now?

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Now free to sign with any team, will the Baltimore Orioles look to add veteran RHP Dan Straily to their starting rotation?

Dan Straily’s Fit With The Baltimore Orioles.

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