Revisiting ReyLo

Earlier this year, I wrote about the eye popping amount Reynaldo Lopez was being used in high leverage situations. You can read below or I can just tell you that 58% of his batters faced were in high leverage situations. Much higher than all other White Sox relievers at that point.

His numbers showed that this was not a good use of his skills. I (and I think everyone else on the planet) hoped they would ratchet down his usage in these spots and see if he returned to something similar to his performance over the last two years (123 IP, 118 Ks, 3.07 ERA).

Wha’ Happened?

When I wrote the blog in May, 44 of his 79 batters faced were in high leverage and his ERA was at a very not good 7.64. However, since then he’s faced 99 batters but only 37 were in high leverage.

With this change, that 7.64 ERA has dipped down to 4.29 giving him an ERA+ of 103 or 3% above league average. Not too bad for the very rough start he had.

What’s Next?

ReyLo is heading into free agency. Being good in high leverage could have been very beneficial to his future earnings, especially if he could have racked up a bunch of saves along the way. This year was a pretty big opportunity wasted, unfortunately.

But you don’t care about that, you want to know if he can be traded. I probably would have said “no” a few days ago, but the Braves made it clear that teams are going to try to build bullpen depth as they head toward the post-season. And it makes sense since bullpens are relied on so heavily in the post-season. The return may be pretty light, but I am not sure what utility ReyLo provides to the White Sox as they sail down the toilet for the remainder of the season. So why not?

-Chorizy-E