{"id":5390,"date":"2012-12-04T11:08:04","date_gmt":"2012-12-04T16:08:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=5390"},"modified":"2012-12-04T11:08:04","modified_gmt":"2012-12-04T16:08:04","slug":"duke-bray-signings-excellent-under-the-radar-moves-for-rizzo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=5390","title":{"rendered":"Duke, Bray signings: excellent, under the radar moves for Rizzo"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Zach Duke seems an easy one-for-one replacement for Tom Gorzelanny. Photo AP Photo\/Jeff Roberson via rr.com<\/p><\/div>\n

It was clear that the Nats stood to lose all three of their left-handed relievers this off-season, either by free agency (Sean Burnett<\/strong>, Michael Gonzalez<\/strong>) or by salary-driven non-tenders (Tom Gorzelanny<\/strong>). \u00a0And it also became pretty clear that the price for quality left-handed relief is on the rise, on the backs of Jeremy Affeldt<\/strong>‘s 3yr\/$18M deal to remain with San Francisco. \u00a0The Nats have all-but-announced that Burnett is going to be too expensive<\/a> for them as a result. \u00a0Furthermore, the Nats farm system faces a specific lack of quality left-handed reliever options<\/a> in the upper minors (2012 Nats farmhands\u00a0Atahualpa Severino<\/strong> having been DFA’d off the 40-man roster in 2012, Corey VanAllen<\/strong> posting a 6+ ERA in 2012, and Patrick McCoy<\/strong> only having reached AA. \u00a0Plus both Severino and VanAllen are minor league free agents to boot), so the team clearly was on the market for FA lefty relief.<\/p>\n

Mike Rizzo<\/strong> took two nice steps towards rebuilding this lefty reliever depth with the 12\/3\/12 signings<\/a> of Zach Duke<\/strong> and Bill Bray<\/strong> to one year deals. \u00a0Duke salvaged his career in 2012 by putting in a 15-5 season in AAA starting, then providing decent (albeit generally low-leverage) relief for the big club in September. \u00a0He signs a major league deal, significant because he has 6+ years of service time and thus cannot be sent back to AAA without consent; clearly Duke is meant to be in the bullpen in 2013. \u00a0He seems to be a perfect like-for-like replacement for Gorzelanny, a lefty ex-starter who has the flexibility to pitch anywhere from one-batter to 5 innings as needed. \u00a0Its tough to draw a ton of conclusions from Duke’s 13 2\/3 September innings (short sample sizes), but his numbers were great<\/a> (1.32 ERA, 1.098 whip and 10\/4 k\/bb in those innings). \u00a0I don’t think I like Duke as much as Gorzelanny, but at the likely price (terms were not announced but I’d be shocked if this was for much more than a $1.5M deal) compared to what Gorzelanny likely makes in arbitration ($3M or more) this represents a good bit of business.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, re-obtaining Bill Bray returns a special player to the fold; Bray was the franchise’ #1 draft pick in 2004<\/a>. \u00a0He’s a local kid (grew up in Virginia Beach, went to William and Mary, and he’s the cousin of a buddy of mine. \u00a0Apologies for the name dropping \ud83d\ude42 ), and he represents a pretty good gamble by the team. \u00a0His numbers with Cincinnati are very up-and-down<\/a>, but when he’s on, he’s good. \u00a0Signing Bray on a minor league deal allows him to compete for the 2nd lefty spot in the bullpen, but also gives the team 40-man roster flexibility to stash him in AAA to start the year if he’s still not recovered from his 2012 injuries (he missed most of 2012 after two separate muscle strain issues<\/a>). \u00a0Or, if he’s looking like he’s in a 5.00 ERA form versus a 2.90 ERA form, there’s no damage in letting him work out kinks in Syracuse. \u00a0I like this move a lot.<\/p>\n

Two good pieces of business to start the Winter Meetings for Rizzo.<\/p>\n

As a side note, the Adam Kilgore<\/strong> article in the Post this morning<\/a> reports a couple of interesting points:<\/p>\n