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Brian Matusz was drafted by the Orioles in 2008, 4th overall in 2008. Since he has yet to live up to his prospect status of the time (a #1 to #3 starter) and it's been almost 7 years now, it's pretty easy (and at the same time, hard) to call him a bust. Looking back at the 2008 draft, it was a pretty weak year for pitchers and assuming that's what the team was looking for they could have done a little better but its hard to point to something obvious. For reference, the next year they took Matt Hobgood even though Zack Wheeler, Mike Minor, and Drew Storen were available. That's bad.
Matusz was able to show some promise early on, especially in 2010 when he finished 5th in Rookie of the Year voting. 2011 though was nothing short of a disaster - he posted a FIP of 7.66 and a bWAR of -2.3. He was given another shot at starter in 2012, but after continuing to struggle he was moved to the bullpen by the end of that season and has been there ever since. The problem is that he has consistently struggled to get out right-handed batters, so he's shown almost no value as a starter and a lot of value as someone who can come in from the bullpen to face lefties. His ability to get David Ortiz out alone might almost be enough of a reason to keep him. But, he has been inconsistent even as a reliever and given the Orioles bullpen crunch going into 2015 and other teams' desire for lefty relievers, does it make sense to trade him?
Over the offseason, the Orioles acquired Wesley Wright. Wright and Matusz are both lefty middle relievers. You could argue Wright was brought on to replace Andrew Miller, except that Miller actually replaced Ryan Webb last season and now Webb is out of options. Since the team seemed to be pretty high on Webb last offseason (and his performance last year was pretty good) I don't see him just being released for nothing. Anyway, Wright vs. Matusz:
Matusz |
IP |
ERA |
ERA+ |
FIP |
WHIP |
fWAR |
Career |
470.2 |
4.95 |
84 |
4.44 |
1.46 |
4.5 |
2014 |
51.2 |
3.48 |
110 |
4.00 |
1.316 |
0.2 |
2015 (ZiPS) |
52 |
3.63 |
- |
3.73 |
1.23 |
0.3 |
Wright |
IP |
ERA |
ERA+ |
FIP |
WHIP |
fWAR |
Career |
299.2 |
4.17 |
97 |
4.27 |
1.402 |
0.1 |
2014 |
48.1 |
3.17 |
121 |
3.44 |
1.386 |
0.3 |
2015 (ZiPS) |
50.7 |
3.73 |
- |
3.88 |
1.30 |
0.1 |
Career Splits |
Matusz |
Wright |
OPS vs. LHP |
.620 |
.646 |
OPS vs. RHP |
.861 |
.833 |
Difference |
.241 |
.187 |
Matusz |
Wright |
|
Age |
28 |
30 |
2015 Salary |
$3.2M |
$1.7M |
FA Year |
2017 |
2016 |