Héctor Rondón Signs with Arizona Diamondbacks
The Arizona Diamondbacks have come to terms with right handed relief pitcher Héctor Rondón. It’s a one-year, $3 million contract with a club option for 2021. If they decide to pick up the option and keep him for 2021, he could make up to $5 million with incentives for the second year.
Héctor Rondón Addresses Bullpen Need
The Diamondbacks will use the 26th man as an additional bullpen arm. They did sign Junior Guerra in December to a one-year deal but needed to add another power arm for late inning help. Look for Rondón to be paired with left-hander Andrew Chafin as set-up guys to Archie Bradley.
In seven seasons with the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros, Rondón has 92 saves and a 3.29 ERA with 418 strikeouts in 421 games. He is one of only three pitchers who have at least 50 appearances and issued 20 or fewer walks the past six seasons.
Pitch Selection
Rondón relies primarily on a four-seam fastball and a slider. His fastball is still comes in the mid-to-upper 90 mph range. His slider produces a lot of fly balls. He will need to adjust that pitch since he will be pitching at Chase Field. He has mixed in a change-up and that pitch has generated a fair number of ground balls. We expect him to use that more for the 2020 season.
Role with the Team and Outlook
We will have to see whether the team will use him as the closer. The past three years they have brought in Fernando Rodney, Brad Boxberger, and Greg Holland. All of them have moved on. Archie Bradley was the closer at the end of the season in 2019 but has not officially been named closer, and as we know, manager Torey Lovullo likes Spring Training competition.
He comes from the successful Astros teams of 2018 and 2019 and was part of the World Series Champion Chicago Cubs in 2016. The Diamondbacks could use that experience as they make a run at a playoff spot in 2020.
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