Indians Grab Former Nemesis Joba Chamberlain on Minor League Deal

Joba Chamberlain‘s biggest moment in Cleveland came in the 2007 ALDS as a member of the Yankees against the Indians, but he will try to make some more positive memories in 2016 as a part of team that benefited from the midge attack.

Earlier today, the Indians announced that they had signed the relief pitcher Chamberlain to a one year minor league deal with an invite to Major League Spring Training. While not as big of an issue as the offense, the bullpen was a target area and to grab as highly thought of a player as Chamberlain this early on could be a steal.

Chamberlain will going into his tenth Major League season at the age of 30, his sixth consecutive as a reliever. His only truly outstanding season in this role was in 2011 with the Yankees, but in 2014 with the Tigers he had another nice campaign with a 3.16 FIP and 8.2 K/9 leading to an ERA of 3.57.

Last year, splitting time with the Tigers, Blue Jays and Royals, things didn’t work out so well. He held a 4.08 ERA with Detroit before being cut in July and signed by Toronto. After just five innings and ten runs (eight earned), he was cut from the Blue Jays and later signed by Kansas City where he allowed five runs in seven AAA innings. Despite this, Chamberlain joined the “best bullpen in baseball” for the final month of the season as a September call-up, allowing five runs in 5.2 innings including two scoreless innings against Cleveland where he struck out four.

This high strike out rate late in the season (12.7 K/9 over his short time in KC) could have been one of the reasons the Indians were interested in Chamberlain at all. They also may have been interested in his split stats.

In his career, Chamberlain was always considered too valuable player to pitch to just one batter. In his career, he has faced 1,161 right handers and 1,155 left handers, a pretty even split. Below are his split averages over his career (left) and during the last season (right).

While he didn’t have much of a split when looking at his entire career (in fact, he allowed a slightly lower slugging percent against members of the opposite hand), he did last year. In fact, his slugging percent was more than .200 points lower last year against right handed batters and was .074 better in batting average.

Although he wasn’t as good against righties as he has been against either side earlier in his career, there is a decent chance that he could be a solid match-up man and that is something the Indians could use. Considering the abuse given to Bryan Shaw and Cody Allen over the past three years, even adding a regular arm in the early relief innings could help save some ware.

The current bullpen looks to be consisted of Allen, Shaw and Zach McAllister as guarantees with Jeff Manship and Kyle Crockett most likely to make the squad as well. Other pitchers like Shawn Armstrong and Giovanni Soto pitched well in the late season while Austin Adams is out of options and Kirby Yates was a recent pick-up already on the 40 man roster. With all these internal options, there are still likely two spots open at the front end of the pen for a pitcher like Chamberlain.

While he isn’t suited for long relief, the Indians should be able to avoid carrying a specific long reliever thanks to the rotation’s ability to get deep into games. In fact, a pitcher like Chamberlain could be perfect for an early match-up role. Even if he isn’t, the Indians have made their second relief pick-up this off-season (the first being Yates) without spending any guaranteed money. Considering the increasing price of arms, it may seem small, but being frugal could pay off in the end if one pitcher winds up working out.