Two weeks after the Washington Nationals addressed some of their bullpen woes two weeks ago, general manager Mike Rizzo knew his team needed more help. On Monday, the Nationals struck a deal to land closer Brandon Kintzler from the Minnesota Twins. The Washington Post's Chelsea Janes first broke word of the agreement on Monday.
Kintzler, a free agent at the end of the season, comes over from Minnesota with 28 saves and some impressive numbers that landed him in the All Star Game. The 32-year-old, right-handed pitcher emerged as Minnesota's closer this season with Glen Perkins on the disabled list all year. In that role, Kintzler stepped up with a 2.78 ERA, 62 ERA- and just four blown saves in 32 opportunities.
The overall numbers are certainly impressive, but Kintzler also shouldn't be perceived as a high-end closer either just because of his ERA.
Simply put, the right-hander rarely misses bats and strikeouts are extremely rare for him compared to his peers. Amongst relievers with 40-plus innings pitched, Kintzler is 157th in strikeout percentage (14.8 percent), 146th in K-BB rate (8.8 percent) and 163rd in swinging-strike rate (6.4 percent).
So while his ERA and ERA- are worthy of an All Star spot, the lack of strikeouts, shows in his Skills-Interactive ERA (SIERA) that sits at 4.07 and ranks 117th amongst qualified relief pitchers.
But Kintzler continues to be succesful this season and part of that is due to a career-best .273 BABIP that is signifcantly better than his career .300 BABIP. Without strikeouts, Kintzler generates the next closest thign to an automatic out.
His 15.6 percent infield fly ball rate is more than double his career six percent IF/FB rate. There could be some regression there, but the number isn't an unheard of rate given this season alone it's the 26th-highest IF/FB rate amongst relief pitchers.