Ervin Santana, Chicago White Sox
Finger issues followed Ervin Santana throughout 2018. After surpassing the 200-inning plateau for the sixth time in his career the year prior, the 36-year-old was limited to just 24.2 frames before heading back out in the open market. It’s not like that small sample size was any good, either — his 14.0% strikeout rate and 7.9% walk rate were among career-low levels, while his 8.03 ERA stands out for the wrong reasons.
It didn’t take him long to accumulate -0.5 fWAR, that’s for sure.
Rarely a hard-thrower during his time in the big leagues, his troublesome finger likely sapped some of his fastball velocity. After posting an average fastball velocity of at least 92 mph in eight of the last nine seasons, that number checked in at 88.8 in 2018.
Santana apparently had widespread interest on the open market back in December, but nothing truly materialized until Friday when he agreed to a minor-league deal with the White Sox.
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