The Phillies declined to offer reliever Justin De Fratus a contract after 2015, looking to create as much room on the 40-man roster as possible. De Fratus signed a Major League contract with Seattle Mariners in the offseason that would have paid him as much as $750,000. It appears that the Mariners will eat the money and look elsewhere to fill their bullpen in 2016, as the Mariners have reportedly released De Fratus.
CBS News reported his release, explaining why:
De Fratus had appeared in four Spring Training gamest thus far, but had trouble breaking 89 on the radar gun with his fastball. He had given up three earned runs across six innings while holding a 4:3 K:BB ratio.
Having such a low velocity is indeed alarming. Could it be due to being overused in 2015?
De Fratus was recently profiled by Lookout Landing's Kate Preusser, who pointed out De Fratus' heavy workload in 2015:
Coming off a strong 2014 in which he posted a 2.39 ERA over 52.2 innings with a 4.08 K/BB ratio, expectations were high for De Fratus in 2015. By the time the season was over, he would find himself dumped unceremoniously on Broad Street with a SEPTA token and nary a backwards glance, saddled with a 5.51 ERA over 80 innings pitched. If you’re thinking to yourself that 80 innings seems like a lot, it is—in fact, that’s the second-most innings pitched by a reliever in 2015, just short of Yankees setup man Dellin Betances. De Fratus also had the second-highest number of average outs per game, at 3.9 (he recorded more than 3 outs 25 times, fourth-most among relievers), fifth-highest number of games where he pitched multiple innings (26), and threw the second-highest number of average pitches per game (24). In fact, last year De Fratus threw more pitches than any other reliever in baseball: 1,414.
Could the workload have led to some sort of injury?
De Fratus was a solid reliever for the Phillies in 2014. When De Fratus' fastball was working in the mid-90s, his slider was very deceptive to hitters:
But, without that fastball, he may not be useful to the Mariners.
Why would De Fratus' fastball dip six miles per hour? Injury is one of many possibilities as to why. I was highly critical of how the Phillies used De Fratus in 2015. De Fratus ended up the Phillies' mop-up reliever, pitching way too many innings and appearing in half of Phillies' games, which alone is bad enough. However, the Phillies only used De Fratus four times the entire month. Looking at his game log, there is a clear correlation between frequency of use and when De Fratus began to struggle.
Hopefully De Fratus is not injured and can regain his mid-90s fastball. If he does, he will certainly help a Major League team once again. With guaranteed money in 2016, De Fratus can probably sign with a team on a minor league deal and work his way back.
