When I decided to name this piece the RP Thrift Shop I couldn’t get the Macklemore jam by the same name out of my head. So here I sit, wearing a fake mink coat, shaving the sides of my head. Like Mack I’m not looking to spend $50 on a t-shirt. I’ll take the 99 cent stuff that smells like R-Kelly’s sheets. Thus, the framework is laid. Let’s talk relievers. Maybe Ryan Lewis will drop a bomb chorus for us.
The Gucci shirt: Edwin Diaz
If you just look at Diaz’s 2020 surface numbers when you’re in the draft room you might click his name when it’s your pick. What those numbers leave out is how the Mets protected him from his Molotov throwing self for an entire month of a two-month season. Sounds exactly like someone you want to invest a top 100 pick on.
The velour jumpsuit: Ryan Pressly
It’s not a huge discount, probably about 25 picks, but you can do so much with those two rounds to make your hitters stand out more. Pressly gives you a healthy K/9 of 12 or so. He’s also far more dependable in his role and his likey run prevention.
The Gucci shirt: Nick Anderson
Ah, crapping on Nick Anderson’s ADP. A spring tradition. I get it. Dude is a good pitcher and throws hard and would be a top 5 closer with the full-time gig and has a luxurious beard. Sorry, you have to pick three and the beard’s going nowhere. He has to get saves at the price or it’s a bust.
The velour jumpsuit: Emmanuel Clase
A reliever with wipeout stuff that maybe figures into the saves picture? How about the boss with the gnarliest cutter in baseball. Clase hasn’t shown the strikeout upside of Anderson. He may not need to. Ratio smoothing is the name of the game here. Some saves would be gravy.
The Gucci shirt: Devin Williams
It’s totally normal for fully healthy pitchers not to appear in spring training games until two weeks before opening day. Williams was an amazing 2020 breakout. He ended his season with a shoulder issue. The team is being cautious with him at the moment. There’s plenty of time to work himself back into form and high leverage spots. I don’t want to pay for that around pick 160, however.
The velour jumpsuit: Tanner Rainey
You want a righty playing the 1b to a lefty closer? Drop down about 250 picks and peep one of the only viable options to give Brad Hand a night off or even, grasps pearls, fill in if Hand implodes. Rainey has been slowed by a muscle strain in the “collar bone area” but is ramping back up. The difference being, Rainey is a free cut if he’s got a serious injury.
