Pittsburgh Pirates Target: Brad Boxberger

One of the biggest holes for the Pittsburgh Pirates this season has been its bullpen. With a DFA’d veteran up for grabs, the Pirates should pull the trigger.

This past week, the Kansas City Royals designated closer Brad Boxberger for assignment. The former All-Star closer could be an interesting pick up for the Pittsburgh Pirates, who need help in the back of the bullpen.

While Boxberger doesn’t have the best numbers this year with a 5.40 ERA and a 4.64 FIP, he has proved himself to be very dominant in past years. In 2014, he had a 2.37 ERA and a 2.84 FIP aided with a 14.5 K/9 rate. In recent years, Boxberger has retained a high strike out rate, 12.3 and 12.0 in 2017 and 2018 respectively.

Boxberger’s problem was a high walk rate of 5.7 BB/9. Over the past two seasons, his fastball has experienced a walk rate of 17% and his change-up this season faces a 10.3% walk rate.

Boxberger seems to be a good candidate for a reclamation project, considering his fastball has a career 35.6% strike out rate. His change-ups as well have been above average for his career, posting a modest 23.2 K% and 7.3 BB% as well as just a 92 and 96 wRC+.

His fastball has dropped in velocity and usage this season, down from 93 MPH in 2016 to 90.6 MPH this season. His usage has dropped from 66.5% last season to 47.2% this season. This seems to be his biggest flaw, however with Ray Searage, he could be able to develop a dominant slider like other members of the Pirates pitching staff (Kyle Crick, Felipe Vazquez, etc.).

His slider is still firm. He’s hardly lost velocity there but, despite his use of it jumping to 19.9% this season with Arizona, it didn’t help as his slider got crushed with a 136 wRC+. Despite this, his mix of pitches has managed to create weak contact, ranking within the 95th percentile in exit velocity and 81st percentile in xSLG according to Baseball Savant.

His changeup has been a big part of this, with just a .271 and .267 xWOBA in 2018 and 2019. Returning Boxberger to his 2014 fastball along with his changeup will create a very effective reliever again. If Searage is able to help him with his slider, Boxberger could be even better as he’s proved before.

In any case, Boxberger would already be an improvement over some of the current members in the pen. Surely, he cold beat out Doyvdas Neverauskas and his 9.95 ERA in 7 games or Michael Feliz and his 6.00 ERA in 20 games. His 4.64 FIP gives a lot more confidence than Richard Rodriquez‘s 6.29 FIP this season as well.

If Boxberger becomes available in a trade, the Pirates should pull the trigger to patch the depth of the bullpen, He would also provide the staff with a possible veteran leader if he can return to his All-Star form.