Darren O’Day agrees to stay with the Orioles:
A team source confirmed this morning that the Orioles reached agreement with reliever Darren O’Day on a four-year deal “pending a medical review.”
The decision came down to the Orioles and Nationals, who reportedly were hesitant to offer a fourth year.
CBSSports.com is reporting that O’Day will receive $31 million. FOXSports.com first reported the agreement.
Basically, the Orioles see O’Day as a 1.0 WAR pitcher who will continue to be consistent in his setup role. Note that he’s been outstanding in the role for the Orioles, doing a tremendous job of keeping opposing batters off base in the seventh and eighth inning, and even occasionally in the ninth.
Now for the interesting bit. Baseball Reference scores O’Day at 9.6 WAR with the Orioles, FanGraphs at 4.9. That’s a huge difference. As I’ve mentioned before, rWAR tends to be more results oriented, fWAR more ability oriented. In his four seasons for the Orioles, and for his career, O’Day’s FIP is much higher than his ERA. I’m not exactly sure why that is. O’Day strikes out tons of batters, walks very few, and gives up home runs at a reasonable rate. His ground ball rate is low however. The Orioles are paying him for his fWAR, despite his results being better than that. If I were his agent, I might have tried to squeeze out a bit more money.
On the other hand, it’s quite possible O’Day wanted to stay in Baltimore, and gave a discount there. He’s also not young, and will play 2016 as a 33-year-old, and his likely decline figured into the Orioles decision.
Of course, over $7 million a year is a pretty good haul for 68 days of work a season, one inning at a time.
Update: O’Day disputes the reports:
Contrary to the news, I have not reached an agreement with the O's yet. I am flattered by all the attention, but reports are premature.
— Darren O'Day (@DODay56) December 6, 2015
Stay tuned.