Good morning world. It’s a beautiful day to be alive. Can we be any luckier? Since I asked, I’ll also answer; yes, yes we can.

We could all be $18 million richer today. Just like Kelvin Herrera. Yesterday the Chicago White Sox signed reliever Kelvin Herrera to a two year, $18 million deal. Pretty solid get for Herrera if the man stays healthy, which has been a bit of a struggle in years past. Herrera was a force in his early 20’s with the Royals, always getting anointed “the closer of the future” due to his high 90’s fastball and wipeout slider, Herrera only had his chance to close once and ended that year with the second highest ERA of his career at 4.25 along with 26 saves. That year, 2017, he gave up the second most home runs per nine innings of his career, 1.37, (his most were his rookie year at 1.39) and his BABIP (batting average on balls in play) was also the highest of his career at .295. Maybe a bit of bad luck? Maybe, as his home run to fly ball ratio (HR/FB) was also the second highest of his career as well besides his rookie season.

His ERA last year between the Royals and the Nationals was 2.44, which is nice, but his ERA after coming over from the Royals skyrocketed to 4.34 through 18.2 innings. Oddly enough, he was lights out with the Royals to begin the year as his ERA was 1.05 through 25.2 innings. As we can see, last year was a weird year for Herrera, or he had to face the great force that is the Atlanta Braves and couldn’t handle the heat so he got out of the kitchen real quick.

With Herrera signing with the White Sox means that he will most likely be a trade chip again at the deadline this year, or next. Whenever his value is highest the White Sox will happily trade him for some prospects as they are in rebuilding mode. Jerry Dipoto would also kill to be the GM of the White Sox so he could splurge everywhere all over the MLB with his players. The players he trades are like his seeds. They all sprout somewhere else but they all know where home is. In Jerry’s heart. Anways, It’s hard to not talk about the guy. Herrera and former Ray Great Alex Colome will now fortify the bullpen even though the White Sox have needs in literally every position except first, second, and shortstop. But hey, let’s sign bullpen guys and make sure when we’re down 4 in the 5th inning the deficit won’t get any larger and maybe Daniel Palka can run into an inside fastball and hitch it out to right field for his only hit of the game, a home run. Now they will be down three and ready to start climbing back. It’s a bold strategy Cotton, let’s see if it pays off for em.

With Herrera signed, the reliever market is now almost all dried up. With Britton signing with the Yankees (annoying), Andrew Miller to the Cardinals, Joe Kelly to the Dodgers, David Robertson to the Phillies, Joakim Soria to the A’s, and Familia back with the Mets, all we have left who is a high profile guy is the most stubborn reliever, also the best, Craig Kimbrel. Kimbrel’s agent, a man by the name of Dave Meter, has already anointed Kimbrel the best of all time. So since he is the best of all time, that means the man is looking to get paid. As always, the later it gets in the off-season, teams start to panic and best believe he will get a panic bid from someone and it will be astronomical, just like the Orioles and Alex Cobb last year. We all saw how that went. Kimbrel deserves to get paid. Maybe not the best all time, shout out Mariano Rivera, but still one of the best closers ever. Demanding a contract in the ballpark (baseball reference, get it) of $100 million, Kimbrel will patiently wait upon his best of all time closers throne until some weird team scoops him. For now, Indians former closer Cody Allen is also unsigned, Ryan Madson’s arm hasn’t fallen off yet and he is also unsigned as well.

With Machado and Harper still unsigned, there is a lot of baseball off-season left. If Machado gets signed by the White Sox, as they have already signed his best friend, Jon Jay, and brother in-law Yonder Alonso, Herrera could end up sticking around if the White Sox are decent enough to make a playoff push. Only time will tell so stay tuned for future baseball news. Go Braves.

P.S. – Fuck Alabama