Atlanta Braves: Dallas Keuchel has been worth the money so far
Dallas Keuchel has been exactly what the Atlanta Braves needed since joining the team in June.
When the Atlanta Braves signed Dallas Keuchel to a one-year deal for a prorated amount of $13 million in June the starting rotation was a bit of a mess.
Mike Foltynewicz and Sean Newcomb, who were thought to be the team’s top of the rotation starters in 2018, were struggling.
Newcomb had already been sent down to Triple-A only to return in the bullpen, and Folty would soon be sent down to figure things out.
Max Fried was starting to cool off after an unbelievable start to the season. And Kevin Gausman was terrible and would soon go on the IL and later would be lost through waivers.
Julio Teheran had been very solid, but he also had his moments where he falls apart.
Insert Dallas Keuchel
In 12 starts since joining the Atlanta Braves, he’s 4-5 with a 4.14 ERA in 71.2 innings with 60 strikeouts and a WHIP of 1.34.
That’s certainly not great and well above his career averages of a 3.69 ERA and 1.26 WHIP.
But what he has done, is he’s steady the starting rotation.
Every fifth day you know he’s going to give you length and give you a chance to win.
The only time he hasn’t gone at least 5 innings is that head-scratcher in Miami when he gave up 8 runs in 3.2 innings. That start and his first start of the season are the only two starts he hasn’t gone more than 5 innings.
Keuchel has also given up 3 earned runs or less in nine of those 12 outings.
When you stay in the game that long and don’t give up more than 3 runs, you give our offense a chance to win the game.
He’s had a couple of tough-luck losses as he went up against Aaron Nola who shut the Atlanta Braves out that day. And then he struck out 12 against the Royals but the bullpen blew the win for him.
The Atlanta Braves have won in half of his starts. Three of the games they’ve lost when he started were by one run, and then there was that 2-0 game against Nola.
I did expect Keuchel to have more starts where he goes 7 innings — he only has four such outings on the season and only one in his last seven starts.
Hopefully he’ll get better at that down the stretch and further limit the exposure and use of our bullpen.
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Maybe others had higher expectations for Keuchel when the Braves signed him, but for me, he’s been exactly what I expected and worth every penny.