T10YL - Jason Grilli to Anaheim; Ernesto Frieri to Pittsburgh
A swap of struggling closers with a 50/50 success rate.
The Names: Pittsburgh Pirates receive: Ernesto Frieri. Los Angeles Angels receive: Jason Grilli.
The Team Context: There’s been a lot of talk about the Pittsburgh Pirates recently, more than any of us would prefer. They had picked up Ike Davis in April and sent away Bryan Morris at the start of June. But these trades were made because the team had disappointed and things were starting to look up by this point. The Pirates were 26-30 on the day of the Bryan Morris trade and had gone 14-9 since then to have a winning record for the first time since April.
We’ve also discussed the Angels in the not-distant past, but they’re worth revisiting in greater depth given what sort of a year it was shaping up to be for them. The Angels were 44-33 after a six-game win streak. They already had a five-game win streak earlier that month and would have multiple other streaks of six or more games, with the most notable being a 10-game win streak in the month of September that put them 11 games up in the AL West. Every player in their starting lineup was an above-average hitter and they had an effective young rotation on their way to a 98-64 record. This was about the last chance that Angels fans would have to feel optimistic about their team for the next decade.
The Player Context: Going from writing about the 2014 NBA Draft to a player who was first selected in the 1994 MLB Draft is giving me whiplash. Grilli didn’t end up signing until after he was selected with the fourth overall pick of the 1997 Draft (between Troy Glaus and Vernon Wells) out of Seton Hall University. Seton Hall used to produce a fair number of major leaguers (including Craig Biggio, John Valentin, and Mo Vaughn in consecutive seasons), but they seem to have hit a rough patch after he was selected. Plenty of Seton Hall Pirates got drafted (44 since 1998), but only Zack Granite has made it to MLB (and he only stuck around for 93 at-bats).
In the time since I wrote that paragraph (but prior to the writing of this sentence), the Twins announced that they were calling up David Festa, a 2021 pick out of Seton Hall. Since I wrote the prior sentence, Festa has now debuted and is currently pitching in the major leagues. His team has spotted him a 6-run lead. I did not know he existed when I decided to look at Seton Hall’s draft history.
Grilli was traded for the first time in 1999, going from San Francisco to the Marlins in exchange for Livan Hernandez. He debuted as a starter with the Marlins in May of 2000, making one start (and winning it). Grilli threw limited innings in 2000 and 2001 as he battled though injuries that built up until a 2002 Tommy John surgery. Grilli returned in 2003 and managed to throw 109 reasonably effective innings across 19 starts in the minors, but was never added back to Florida’s 40-man roster. This allowed the White Sox to scoop him up in the Rule 5 Draft despite his prior MLB experience.
At the time Grilli was selected, it cost a team $50,000 to select a player in the Rule 5 Draft. The selecting team is required to keep that player on their MLB roster for the entire season. If they want to remove the player from their MLB roster, they must offer the player back to his original franchise for $25,000 (this process is still the same today, though both numbers have doubled). It is a testament to Grilli’s low perceived value as a 27-year-old, injury-prone pitcher (along with the miserly nature of the Marlins) that Grilli spent almost the entire 2004 season in AAA, only debuting at the MLB level on August 27. After the season, the White Sox designated him for assignment.
Grilli joined the Tigers in 2005 and finally gained traction in his career when he started working out of the bullpen in 2006. He bounced to Colorado and Texas as a middle reliever, then suffered a knee injury in 2010 Spring Training with Cleveland that left him “sitting in a pool with all of the blood” after his kneecap dislocated and a bone chip sliced his right quadricep during a running drill. Grilli overcame this injury, rehabbing and returning to excel at AAA Lehigh Valley in 2011. That July, with no call-up from the Phillies forthcoming, Grilli was released to join the Pirates.
Grilli was immediately effective in Pittsburgh and was promoted to closer after Joel Hanrahan was traded. After registering two MLB saves in his pre-Pirates career and three saves in his first two seasons in Pittsburgh, Grilli saved 33 games in his age-36 season in 2013, making his first All-Star Game as the Pirates returned triumphantly to the playoffs.
2014 had started less triumphantly; he blew his first save opportunity, saved four straight, blew two more, then missed a month with an oblique injury. After back-to-back June appearances where he allowed a loss and then blew a save, the Pirates began to lose patience with the now 37-year-old Grilli. Mark Melancon had been pitching admirably in the set-up role and manager Clint Hurdle was cryptic when asked about Grilli’s status as closer, saying that they’d evaluate the situation and make the best decision for the ballclub. He pitched a scoreless inning the next day, but got shelled for four hits and two runs against the Rays in his final appearance with Pittsburgh.
Fans (and organizations) have short tempers with relief pitchers. Nobody wants to see a pitcher exit the bullpen and allow any runs whatsoever. Even if blow-ups occur rarely, they’ll stick in the mind of a fanbase and erode trust faster than it can be rebuilt. Theoretically, Grilli could have been an exception to this based on the good vibes of 2013. He tarnished that with the release of his autobiography Just My Game, which came out in May while Grilli was injured after an ineffective start. The book was described as “hilariously narcissistic” and drew ire from Pirates fans based on passages that made Grilli seem like a jerk, from “I was going to be practically standing in the soup line on the Triple A disabled list … I made about sixty grand for the year” to (quoting his own conversations with high school classmates) “Okay, you enjoy playing professional lacrosse and making $500 a week while I’m signing my first million-dollar contract.” He criticized the Phillies for letting him languish in AAA and then leave to Pittsburgh, saying it was “sort of like [Albert] Pujols’ scouting report saying that he has warning track power but will never hit in Big League ballparks.” One understands why Grilli would want to write a victory lap of a book after a 2013 season where he suddenly became an All-Star closer at age 36. One also understands why the victory lap was received poorly in 2014.
Ernesto Frieri had a similar career story to Grilli, just shorter and not put in unlikable writing yet. While Jason Grilli battled in the majors with Detroit in his first season of bullpen work, Frieri was taking his first shot at stateside baseball as a 19-year-old Padres prospect. Frieri made it to the majors in 2009 and was sticking around on a permanent basis by 2011. His numbers in San Diego were never anything but excellent even as he continued to work in low leverage situations in a Padres bullpen that featured guys like Mike Adams and Luke Gregerson backing up Heath Bell. He put up gaudy strikeout numbers, but allowed a lot of fly balls (leading to home runs in stadiums smaller than Petco Park) and walks.
In May of 2012, the Padres sent Frieri to the Angels in exchange for Alexi Amarista and Donn Roach (neither of whom were impactful big-leaguers). By May 23, he saved the first game of his MLB career for the Angels after striking out Jemile Weeks, Coco Crisp, and Seth Smith to dispatch the Oakland A’s. Frieri held down a late-inning spot for the rest of the season, ending the year with a 2.32 ERA in 66 innings with 23 saves. His role for 2013 seemed to be in jeopardy when the Angels brought in Ryan Madson that November after his layoff for Tommy John surgery, but Madson didn’t seem to heal properly and only contributed one minor league inning that season.
This left Frieri set to take over the closer role again, and he did so admirably for the first month of the season. We can monitor his progress over 2013 from bullpen updates provided by Rotographs (the fantasy department of Fangraphs). On May 1, they noted that “Frieri has an impressive 2.19 ERA, but his 19.6% BB% seems to imply he is a ticking time bomb.” On May 24, they noted that “Ernesto Frieri’s wild fours over his last three outings (four hits, four walks, four runs) may have him in the doghouse in Los Angeles),” while acknowledging that “one thing in Frieri’s favor is the total decimation of the rest of the Angels bullpen.” On June 23, the blurb starts with “ugly outings for closers in the Pirates/Angels game” as they describe a chaotic game where Frieri blew a 6-3 lead in the 9th inning to make it 6-6, teammate Kevin Jepsen allowed 4 runs in the top of the 10th to make it 10-6, and then Jason Grilli almost blew it for the Pirates, allowing 3 of the 15 earned runs he’d allow in 2013 before the game ended 10-9.
By August 11, Rotographs described Frieri as being “demoted from the closer role in Los Angeles.” A guy named Dane De La Rosa, in the midst of his only good MLB season, was ostensibly the replacement for Frieri during this time; he had picked up a save on August 9 and wouldn’t pick up his second save until August 27, by which point Frieri had already returned to saving games himself. Rotographs recommended on August 29 that fantasy owners who “could use a scab save or two” could hold on to De La Rosa; he did not have any more saves in his MLB career. Despite the turbulence, Frieri closed out his 2013 with 37 saves.
The Angels didn’t experience a save situation for their first eight games of 2014. Frieri was called upon to secure the save in the ninth game, but had already allowed two home runs in his first appearance (a non-save situation) to balloon his ERA past respectability. On April 23, he entered into a 4-1 game, immediately allowed a home run to Jose Lobaton, then let three more runs score to take the decision in a 5-4 loss and peak his ERA at 9.35. Rotographs’ final in-season post on Ernesto Frieri was published on June 12, 2014 (about two weeks before he was traded). They note that despite Frieri’s terrible April, he had recovered to save seven games in the last 30 days while posting a 2.13 ERA and reducing his walk rate to a career-best. Frieri allowed four runs in his next appearance while getting no outs and allowed runs in three of the four appearances he’d make in an Angels uniform after that.
The Trade: This was a bizarre change-of-scenery swap. Both players involved were entrenched closers in one sense, having saved 33 (Grilli) and 37 (Frieri) games for their teams in 2013. But they were also journeymen in another sense, having shown up at their clubs with little fanfare and transforming from “found money” to “proven closers.” Angels GM Jerry Dipoto was blunt in his public assessment of the trade, saying that “we are trading a struggling closer for a struggling closer” and that it took “about seven minutes” to negotiate the trade. But Dipoto also clarified that neither man would necessarily be a “closer,” saying “whether Jason Grilli returns to the ninth inning will have to be determined by Jason Grilli.”
The baseball public was confused by this swap taking place, but there was so little ambiguity in the transaction that nobody could remain confused for long. Both guys had been good but were recently bad. Angels and Pirates fans got to argue over whether their previous bad reliever was actually worse than their new bad reliever, but nobody was all that excited. The Pirates would seem to have the advantage just on the basis that Frieri was younger and hadn’t written a widely-scorned autobiography recently. Frieri also had additional years of arbitration remaining, while Grilli was a free agent at the end of the season — if both players returned to form, only the Pirates would have a long-term asset.
Neither guy was able to get a direct flight to their next destination (they don’t charter planes when they’re kicking you off the team). Grilli was flying from Pittsburgh to Kansas City, where the Angels had just begun a series, but had a layover at Chicago O’Hare. Frieri was flying from Kansas City to Pittsburgh, where the Pirates were at home. He also had a layover at O’Hare. The only reason we have such detailed travel itineraries is that Frieri and Grilli met each other for the first time when they randomly bumped into each other in an airport bathroom a few hours after being traded for each other. The two were washing their hands in side-by-side sinks, noticed each other, and did a double take before Grilli said “Really? Well I guess this is when we get to meet each other.”
The Results: Ernesto Frieri allowed 12 runs in the 10.2 innings he threw for Pittsburgh. Most of his 14 outings were fine, but he had appearances where he allowed five runs and four runs in the month of July. On August 2, he allowed two runs in an inning in his final appearance before he was designated for assignment and outrighted to AAA. He was released from the organization entirely on September 8. According to Reddit user Pensfan66595, whose dad got to talk to Pirates pitching coach Ray Searage before a game (this is journalism) at the tail-end of the Frieri era, Searage responded to a question about Frieri by chuckling and saying “He’s a good guy, it’s just that the Angels really messed up him.” Given our rough communication chain, these quotation marks only apply to Pensfan66595 and is probably not a direct quote of Ray Searage (or Pensfan66595’s dad).
One month after the trade, Angels fans were doing victory laps about having Grilli in the fold instead of Frieri. Anything would’ve been better than Frieri’s actively destructive post-trade performance, but Grilli returned to effective form with a 3.48 ERA (2.15 FIP) in 33.2 post-trade innings for the Angels to make it an easy win for Anaheim. Grilli only picked up one save, though more for lack of opportunity than lack of ability (stay tuned for our coverage of the Angels’ Huston Street acquisition in a couple of weeks). In the 2014 ALDS, Grilli was perfect in the two innings he pitched, but the Angels’ offense combined to score six runs in the three-game sweep.
The Aftermath: Grilli returned to closing when he signed a two-year, $8 million contract with the Braves that offseason. Of course, he had no reason to think he’d be returning to closing when he signed given the presence of Craig Kimbrel in the Atlanta bullpen. When Kimbrel was sent to San Diego in a preseason shocker (stay tuned for our coverage of the AJ Preller era in a couple of months), Grilli slid into the closer role and notched 24 saves that season. He would end up getting traded to Toronto at the 2016 deadline (age 39) and then traded again to Texas at the 2017 deadline (age 40). After that season, he told T.R. Sullivan that he had no intention of retiring, but apparently no MLB teams had intentions of employing him — he has not pitched since then. According to his Twitter, he is the founder of Rock’N Ball Wines and the host of the Mound Visit with Jason Grilli podcast (which is part of the Bleav Network as of yesterday).
After flaming out in Pittsburgh, Frieri did what any sensible pitcher would do and signed a cheap one-year contract with the Tampa Bay Rays. It didn’t work – he still allowed too many home runs and walked too many batters, but now wasn’t getting enough strikeouts to make the package worth it. The Rays designated him for assignment on June 2. He once again went unclaimed and finished out the season in AAA Durham. Frieri failed to latch on with a team for the 2016 season and ended up taking the year off to work on his pitching mechanics. He pitched well enough for Team Colombia at the 2017 World Baseball Classic that he made it back to affiliated baseball, including a brief resurfacing to throw 7.0 innings for the Texas Rangers. He walked six batters (two of these were intentional, which seems cruel to do to the guy) and was off the roster by July. The Rangers eventually traded him to the Mariners for $1, which we will not be covering in 2027. Frieri’s final record of pitching came with Yaquis de Obregon of the Mexican Winter League; he only had a 2.08 ERA, but that’s because only one of the three runs he allowed (in 4.1 innings of work) was earned.
On May 9, 2023, Frieri became a U.S. citizen. According to his comments on a broadcast (not sure which broadcast), he’s been living in California and working at a bank (not sure which bank).
Miscellaneous: Jason Grilli’s dad was a reliever for Detroit and Toronto (mostly Detroit) in the late 1970s. A Pirates fan suggested that Jason Grilli should be paid in Bitcoin (probably as slander); if he had been paid his salary of $4,250,000 in 2014 in Bitcoin based on the price ten years ago ($581.30), he would have earned 7,311.2 Bitcoin (worth about $451 million at time of writing).
June 30:
Atlanta Hawks receive: John Salmons, 2015 2nd
Toronto Raptors receive: Lou Williams, Lucas Nogueira
July 1:
NFL/MLB/NBA combo post (one absurd trade from each league!)