Twins

REPORT: Twins sign Matt Belisle

Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports reported on Thursday evening that the Minnesota Twins have come to terms on a one-year deal with reliever Matt Belisle. Terms were not immediately made known. (UPDATE: Terms available below)

Belisle, who turns 37 in June, has been in the major leagues since 2003, when he debuted with the Cincinnati Reds. He has pitched his entire 13-year MLB career in the National League, including most recently posting a 1.76 ERA with the Washington Nationals in 46 innings (40 appearances) last season.

Through 834 MLB innings, Belisle has a 4.20 ERA (3.76 FIP) with 6.8 strikeouts per nine innings, 2.2 walks per nine and a WHIP of 1.36. Basically speaking, Belisle is a groundball guy (47.3 percent career, 47.2 percent in 2016) who keeps the ball in the ballpark and keeps the bases clean by limiting walks.

Belisle relies heavily on a low-90s fastball (55.3 percent in 2016) and will mix in a slider most often (32.9 percent) along with a curve and a show-me changeup. The slider and curve both carry decent whiff rates (in the vicinity of 12-13 percent for his career and in 2016), while his four-seam fastball has strangely become a solid pitch over the last two seasons. Over the last two seasons, opposing batters have posted an OPS of just .525 and .607 against his four-seamer, despite it being the pitch he’s thrown most over that time frame.

As a righty, Belisle was weirdly tough on lefties last season (.443 OPS against) while righties hit him rather well (.736 OPS). Those splits were opposite and not nearly as disparate in 2015 (.784 OPS for LHH, .639 for RHH) and for his career he does not have a real large split.

Ultimately, Belisle is a dependable middle reliever who can be used in just about any role the Twins see fit. He doesn’t get quite as many grounders as Brandon Kintzler, but the tradeoff is that he also keeps the ball in the park better.

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