David Robertson’s time in Chicago has been a waste.
I don’t mean that literally, of course. He’s thrown 125.2 mostly good innings in his two years with the White Sox, and made $21 million doing it. That’s not a waste! Nor do I mean it in the same sense of “The White Sox are wasting Chris Sale’s prime!” because Robertson isn’t a stud pitcher at the apex of his career.
But what Robertson has and continues to be is an expensive Proven Closer on a bad team.
The White Sox bullpen was bad in 2016, and while Robertson was hardly to blame — he was probably the second most valuable reliever on the staff behind Nate Jones — he had his share of meltdowns, including the May 28 Kansas City Massacre that won’t soon be forgotten.
When the White Sox gave Robertson a four-year, $46M contract before the 2015 season it was because good teams, playoff contending teams, need reliable arms in the back of their bullpen. Over the last two years, Robertson has been mostly reliable, but the White Sox haven’t been relevant enough for it to matter.
And now, as we ponder whether they’ll give it another go in 2017, his effectiveness appears to be in the decline.
Robertson was mostly fine in 2016. Never quite in “get him the hell out of the closer’s role” territory. But he will be 32 in April and his peripherals took a nose dive last season.
After posting the best K/BB rate of his career in 2015 (6.62), that number plummeted to 2.34 in 2016, the lowest he’s seen since 2010. Looking at it more simply, Robertson threw one fewer inning in 2016 than 2015 and walked 19 more batters while striking out 11 fewer.
Robertson had a higher OPS against than any season since 2010, and allowed a higher BABIP than any season since 2012, so the hope is that he just ran into a bit of bad luck in 2016. But still, the spike in walks is concerning.
Relievers are variable, and it’s completely possible that those downward-trending numbers level out next season. Robertson is owed $25M over the next two seasons, and while trading him would severely hinder the White Sox bullpen, you have to wonder how much that salary being sent elsewhere — if possible — would help the White Sox shore up other positions.
If it’s not a hindrance, of course, and the White Sox are able to spend enough to build a contender in 2017 while also keeping Robertson around, that would be the most ideal scenario.
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I don’t think it hurts one bit to call the Nationals and or Giants to see if they’d be interested here.
If they are going to “go for it” again I think the optimal bullpen set up should be Robertson 6-7th inning, Jones 7-8th inning, Burdi 9th inning.
While I think they’ll be “going for it” again, I highly doubt they use Robertson for anything but the 9th inning.
I also hope they don’t rush Burdi, but that’s likely going to happen.
The Sox bullpen had the highest BB/9 in 2016 and Robertson was a large reason for that. After Melancon and Jansen sign, he should be traded.