This is a series of evaluations that will be done this offseason on every player that closed the season on the 40-man roster for the Minnesota Twins throughout the winter until each player has been evaluated. The plan is to start with Mr. Belisle and move all the way through the pitchers, then to the catchers, infielders, outfielders and finally those listed as designated hitters on the club’s official MLB.com roster. That means we’ll wrap it up with Kennys Vargas sometime before the season starts.
- Name: Buddy Boshers
- 2017 Role: Lefty specialist who was absolutely throttled by right-handed hitters.
- Expected 2018 Role: May be outrighted off the 40-man roster, but if he returns, he’ll reprise a similar role.
- MLB Stats: 4.89 ERA, 5.19 FIP in 35 innings; 7.2 K/9, 2.6 BB/9, 1.34 WHIP, minus-0.2 fWAR.
- MiLB Stats: 3.68 ERA, 3.81 FIP in 14.2 innings at Triple-A Rochester
- Contract Status: Arbitration-eligible after 2018, eligible for free agency after 2021.
2017 Lowdown:
One thing Terry Ryan did fairly well was finding impact relievers in minor-league free agency, and one of his final finds at the helm of the Minnesota Twins was Buddy Boshers. Boshers was by no means great in 2016, but he posted a 4.25 ERA (2.84 FIP) with more than a strikeout per inning, almost no walks (1.8 BB/9) and an above-average groundball rate (46.7 percent).
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the numbers were superficially good, as a lefty low-90s fastball who can spin a good breaking ball probably isn’t going to do that sort of thing year in and year out. But he carried a 12.2 percent swinging-strike rate — about 11.5 percent is average — and did most of his damage against left-handed hitters (.560 OPS against). These aren’t the superstars that bullpen builders flock to, but solid LOOGY’s — baseball speak for lefty, one-out guys — get plenty of dough on the open market. Guys like Antonio Bastardo and Tony Sipp have gotten in the neighborhood of $6 million per year in free agency in recent years, and Brett Cecil sort of broke the mold last winter when he signed a four-year, $30.5 million deal.
Boshers is by no means in the neighborhood of Cecil, but it’s fair to say if he’d had his 2015 season with free agency looming, he might’ve scored a two- or three-year deal worth $4-5 million on the open market. It’s disingenuous to call those deals disastrous, but they have not paid off to this point. Sipp has been a negative fWAR player in each of the last two seasons with the Astros, while Bastardo had such a rough 2017 (minus-0.5 fWAR) that it almost entirely negated his 2016 year (plus-0.6).
The overriding point here is that guys like Boshers probably have to be considered disposable, and the Twins have wisely identified that. What was less wise was letting Boshers face so many righties this season.
Boshers was up for a brief spell in April and again in late May until the middle of August. Through his first 25 appearances, he was having a fine season. Not terribly good, but fine. He’d posted a 3.77 ERA to that point, but was allowing opposing batters to hit .250/.314/.454 with a 24-9 K/BB ratio in 28.2 innings.
In a good bullpen — or even one with a healthy Ryan O’Rourke — that is more or less disposable LOOGY production.
But most of Boshers’ issues came down to his final two appearances in August, where he allowed five earned runs against Cleveland over the span of just one inning. In the first appearance, Boshers walked Jay Bruce — the lefty he should have faced, and only faced — before allowing a bad-luck infield hit to switch-hitter Carlos Santana. Austin Jackson — another righty, if you’re scoring at home — followed that by drilling a three-run homer, turning a 3-1 game into a 6-1 deficit.
The only out Boshers got that night was a popout off the bat of Bradley Zimmer — a lefty.
Two days later, Boshers got Bruce on a popup to end the sixth inning, then promptly gave up a single to Santana and a double to Brandon Guyer — again, both righties — before getting Zimmer to ground into a fielder’s choice. Boshers left with two on and the Twins trailing 3-2, and Ryan Pressly immediately gave up a three-run homer to Yan Gomes, with both runs going on Boshers’ ledger.
That was enough to get Boshers a two-week stay at Triple-A Rochester before he returned as a September call-up. Before this two-game blip, Boshers pitched respectably. Once recalled, it was more of the same: 3.38 ERA, .652 OPS against and no walks in 5.1 September innings.
The difference was this — Boshers made 11 appearances (!) for those 5.1 innings. He was used more or less as a specialist, and it worked!
With all this in mind, Boshers’ splits for the season won’t surprise anyone.
- Against RHH (91 PA) – .300/.367/.538 slash, 18-8 K/BB ratio
- Against LHH (68 PA) – .224/.258/.397 slash, 10-2 K/BB ratio
In other words, given that he faced more righties than lefties and was crushed by them, his ERA in the neighborhood of 5.00 isn’t all that surprising. But really, he was just fine for almost the entire season, with the exception of two ugly spots. Still, just fine isn’t going to cut it on a bullpen that needs improvements. There’s probably only room for one of him and O’Rourke, and maybe neither if the team makes some moves this offseason.
He’s a worthy gamble as a camp invitee, but probably not much more than that.
Grade: B-. When used properly, Boshers has value. But for a team that could use a bullpen upgrade, he’s a none-too-special specialist who could find his way out of the team’s plans.
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