Right-hander Kendall Graveman missed the entire 2024 season due to shoulder surgery, but ESPN’s Jesse Rogers reports that the veteran reliever is now healthy and generating interest in free agency as the bullpen market continues to pick up steam late in the winter. MLBTR’s Steve Adams adds that Graveman was cleared to begin throwing late last season and has had a normal offseason program. He’s expected to be ready for spring training and Opening Day.
A team signing Graveman would be betting on a bounceback. He was a solid starter earlier in his career but missed the 2019 season recovering from Tommy John surgery and converted to a relief role after that. He had a strong run prior to his most recent injury. From 2021-22, he threw 121 innings for the Mariners, Astros and White Sox, allowing 2.53 earned runs per nine. He struck out 25% of batters faced, gave out walks to 9.1% of opponents and generated grounders on a hefty 54.3% of batted balls.
His 2023 was a bit uneven. Starting the year with the White Sox, his 10.8% walk rate with Chicago was a bit elevated, but not alarmingly so. He pitched to a 3.48 ERA with the Sox, tallied eight saves and eight holds, and punched out a roughly average 22.6% of batters faced. After getting dealt back to the Astros in exchange for catcher Korey Lee, he walked 16.7% of opponents down the stretch. His 25% strikeout rate and 2.42 ERA were both sharp, but the command was clearly lacking. Beyond the uncharacteristically high number of free passes, his ground ball rate was only 38.7%, a big drop from the previous seasons.
The Astros left him off their ALDS roster due to some right shoulder discomfort. In January of 2024, it was announced that he required surgery on the shoulder and would likely miss the entire season. In hindsight, perhaps that injury explains some of this 2023 struggles, as the velocity on all his pitches dropped relative to 2022.
Graveman is now 34 years old. He missed all of last year and didn’t post his best numbers the year prior. There’s certainly risk in signing a pitcher in this position, but it could turn into a nice upside play if he’s able to stay healthy and get back to his previous form.
The last time Graveman was a free agent, in the 2021-22 offseason, he signed a three-year, $24MM deal with the White Sox. Based on what has happened over the past couple of years, he’ll surely be limited to something far less this time around — likely a low-cost one-year deal with incentives based on innings pitched (and possibly games finished).
The relief market has picked up significantly this month. The Cubs and Reds acquired Ryan Pressly and Taylor Rogers, respectively, in trades over the past week. Six different free agent relievers have signed eight-figure deals in the past few weeks: Tanner Scott, Jeff Hoffman, A.J. Minter, Kirby Yates, Andrew Kittredge and José Leclerc. Another six relievers signed in the $3-8MM range: Tommy Kahnle, Paul Sewald, Chris Martin, Ryne Stanek, Caleb Ferguson and Jorge López.
Pitchers like Kenley Jansen, David Robertson, Kyle Finnegan and others are still out there but likely to earn notable salaries, to varying degrees. Others, including Robert Suarez, Ryan Helsley and Camilo Doval, could be available in trade, though acquiring any one of them would require giving up young talent and/or taking on money. Graveman represents a more affordable alternative — one with far less certainty than the bulk of available arms but also a good bit more upside than most of the relievers who’ve yet to sign. In total, from 2021-23, he posted a 2.74 ERA with 51 holds, 24 saves, a 24.5% strikeout rate, a 10.4% walk rate and a 48.9% grounder rate.
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