Back in November, there were reports that the Rockies had their eye on Wade Davis or Zach Britton as options to replace Greg Holland in their bullpen, since their closer was heading off to Free Agency Land.
Wade Davis agrees to a 3-year deal with the Colorado Rockies, per reports
Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
With Britton injured for the foreseeable future and Holland continuing to test the free agent waters, Davis is the closer they ended up with based on a report from Jeff Passan. The deal is a reported three-year, $52 million agreement which would make this the “highest per-year salary ever” for a reliever, according to Passan.
While it will be tough to replicate the success Holland had at Coors Field in 2017, if anyone can do that it’s Wade Davis, who repeatedly saved the Cubs’ season in the playoffs, even if that meant he was often serving as the team’s entire bullpen in tough spots.
That playoff performance may have overshadowed how steadily good Davis was in the regular season for casual fans, but he was great before it was crunch time too. He put up a 2.30 ERA in 58.2 innings, with a 3.38 FIP in 2017. That’s ahead of Holland’s 3.72 FIP in the same season, and Davis’ WHIP was just a hair better at 1.142 as opposed to Holland’s 1.151.
Coors Field isn’t a forgiving park for pitchers, as we all know. But Davis slotting in for Holland in the closing role is one of the best outcomes for the Rockies this winter, and as long as his numbers don’t skew too dramatically from what he put up this season (whether because of the field or simply having a bad year) their bullpen is set to once again anchor the pitching staff with reliable performances and back up a potent offense by limiting runs.
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