Colby Rasmus was the first to accept a qualifying offer under the newest collective bargaining agreement.
Colby Rasmus was once a super prospect in the Cardinals organization, but when he reached the majors, his personality clashed with management and as the Cardinals do, they shipped him away. In 2015, Rasmus played 20+ games at each of the three outfield positions while fitting in with the Astros concept of swing for the fences no matter how much you strike out.
Rasmus batted .238 with an astounding amount of 154 strikeouts. That’s the bad news. The good news for Rasmus was that his BABIP (Batting Average-Balls In Play) was .305, thus when he did make contact, he was getting the ball either over the fence or into the holes. He hit 25 HR with 23 doubles and two triples in the regular season, but during the series with the Royals, he hit four HR batting .412 with an OBP of .583. This was overshadowed by Daniel Murphy of the Mets, before the World Series of course, but Rasmus was still spectacular.
Rasmus chose to stay with the Astros because he enjoys the team he is on that accepts him. What other teams would see as failings, the Astros accept, and with the qualifying offer accepted, Rasmus may have hopes for a modest extension over the winter or at the beginning of next season.
The bigger news of the week was the Craig Kimbrel trade to the Red Sox.
Kimbrel had his worst full season of his career. His velocity was still stellar at 98 mph, but he blew four saves while just saving 39 games. He had saved 40 + games the four seasons previous. His WHIP was 1.04, which is the first time it has been over 1.00. Kimbrel also allowed a career high six homeruns. He also allowed an On Base Percentage Against of .264 which was again the highest of his career.
The good news here is that all these career worsts were better than nearly all closers. Kimbrel’s K/9 was also near a career low at 13.20. For a closer that normally pitches just one inning, anything above 9.0 means that they are at least getting one strikeout per appearance. Essentially, Kimbrel is getting close to 1 1/2 per inning.
The move from Petco to Fenway should not be too colossal for his talents to transition since he still has the strikeout numbers, but keep an eye out for his HR allowed because with that short wall out there in Left Field, you never know.
As always, I welcome feedback, so let the comments pour in.