Three Undervalued Free Agents the Yankees Should Consider

Brad Ziegler

While the 37-year-old Ziegler is not often mentioned alongside Aroldis Chapman, Kenley Jansen, and Mark Melancon when discussing the elite relievers available on the free agent market this winter, he has been every bit as good the last two years as those more famous closers.

From 2015-2016, Ziegler has a 2.05 ERA and 3.27 FIP, striking out 17% of the batters he’s faced and walking 7.8% in 136 innings of work. The real eye-popping number though is the 68.1% groundball rate in that span, second only to Baltimore’s Zach Britton among qualified relievers.

Despite his excellent results, Ziegler is expected to have to settle for a modest two-year deal this winter because of two factors: his age and the fact that he throws sidearm. Teams should always be wary about signing a 37-year-old reliever, but because he relies primarily on deception and not velocity, (his “heater” averaged 83.9 mph in 2016), Ziegler seems like a good bet to avoid decline for at least another couple of seasons.

Pitching sidearm may make him more vulnerable to lefty batters (he allowed a .267/.380/.343 line against LHB in 2016), but with rumors that a 26th roster spot will be added in the new CBA, carrying a pure specialist reliever becomes even easier than it was previously.

I’ve seen the case made that the Yankees should spread the money they would spend on Chapman this winter around to a few different relievers like Ziegler, Joe Blanton, Sergio Romo, etc. and I can definitely see the merit in the suggestion, but my preference would be to get at least one elite, shutdown arm in place for next year before supplementing with guys like Ziegler.