Via Ben Nicholson-Smith, the Yankees did not check in on left-handed reliever Darren Oliver before he signed with the Blue Jays for one-year and $4M. Coincidentally, that’s how much the Yankees will pay Pedro Feliciano to rehab from shoulder surgery this year.
Oliver, 41, has enjoyed the four best seasons of his career — in terms of ERA and FIP — in the last four years. I don’t know how he did it, but the guy suddenly became a shutdown lefty reliever. He’s pitched to a 2.63 ERA and a 3.10 FIP in 253.2 IP during those four years, with solid overall strikeout (7.8 K/9 and 21.3 K%), walk (2.24 BB/9 and 6.1 BB%), and ground ball (44.6%) rates. Lefties have hit just .231/.270/.353 off him during that time. The Yankees brought in Hideki Okajima, Cesar Cabral, and Mike O’Connor on the cheap this winter an effort to maybe find a second lefty reliever to pair with Boone Logan.
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