Now the Atlanta Braves Can go After Dallas Keuchel, Right?
Now that Bryce Harper has signed with the Philadelphia Phillies, the Atlanta Braves can officially start thinking about signing Dallas Keuchel.
With all of the injuries and question marks with the young pitchers in the Atlanta Braves organization, now seems like the perfect time to go after free agent starting pitcher Dallas Keuchel.
This is in no way a response to what the Phillies did by signing Bryce Harper. I saw Bob Nightengale tweet that the Phillies with Harper are now the favorite in the NL East and I about flipped a lid.
I don’t know how most Braves fans feel about it, but to me, the Phillies signing Harper didn’t really move the needle in terms of how I view them. I still think they will be a good team that will compete for the division, but I would still pick the Nationals and Braves ahead of them at this point.
If anything, go after Keuchel would more so be in response to the injuries that Braves started are experiencing in Spring Training.
But even beyond that, the Atlanta Braves just need a steady force at the top of the rotation, and they’ve needed to acquire that pitcher all offseason.
That, coupled with the two things I just mentioned, should hopefully be motivation enough for the front office to make a move.
No one has even been sniffing around Keuchel yet, but that was all expected to change once Manny Machado and Harper signed. Well, they’ve signed, so now we know what the market looks like for Keuchel.
And with the Phillies almost certainly out of the running, that only leaves a handful of teams, and the Atlanta Braves better be one of them. The other two teams interested seem to the Houston Astros and San Diego Padres.
I know we’ve covered at length this offseason, but let me remind you of Keuchel’s resume. He’ll play this season at 31-years-old and had a career ERA of 3.66 in 1,189.1 innings pitched with 945 strikeouts and a WHIP of 1.25.
He also won the Cy Young in 2015, is a two-time All-Stat, and has won four Gold Glove awards.
Last season he had a 3.74 ERA in 204.2 innings pitched with 153 strikeouts. He’s thrown at least 145 innings or more in six straight seasons.
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Keuchel also has a 3.331 ERA in 51.2 postseason innings pitched with 48 strikeouts and four wins.
He also keeps the ball in the park better than most of the starters the Braves are currently counting on.
While I don’t think Keuchel is the shutdown ace that he was in 2014 and 2015, he’s still the veteran presence we need atop the rotation. And someone we can count on in the postseason.
We also have to keep in mind that he turned down a qualifying offer of $17.9 million, so not only will he be looking to make that much money in free agency, but he’ll cost the Atlanta Braves a precious draft pick.
I don’t know what Keuchel’s hopes are at this point, but I think he would take a three-year deal for around $15 million a year. And I don’t know if the Atlanta Braves would be willing to that far, which is frustrating.
Either way, I really hope the front office is at least making an attempt to bring Keuchel or another frontline starter on board before Opening Day.