Darren O’Day Returns to Baltimore Orioles: Fantasy Fallout

The Baltimore Orioles were able to re-sign a valuable part of their bullpen, Darren O’Day. While he isn’t a closer, he will be an integral member of the team.

The Baltimore Orioles are doing to best they can to keep pace with their American League East counterparts. While the team seems to have moved on from power hitter Chris Davis, the team focused on another key part of the team. The Orioles signed Darren O’Day to a four-year deal and will keep a key piece of their bullpen under contract until 2020. How does this signing affect the fantasy baseball world?

Zach Britton is slated to start the 2016 as the Orioles closer. He had a 1.92 ERA and 36 saves last season. So, unless he completely falls apart or suffers an injury, that won’t change for next year. O’Day, however, is a perfect set-up man for the Orioles. 

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Darren O’Day bounced around for the first three years of his career before landing in Baltimore in 2012. Since his first season, He improved greatly year over year. In 2012, he had a 2.28 ERA, 0.94 WHIP, 69 strikeouts and zero saves in 69 games. In 2015, he had a 1.52 ERA, 0.93 WHIP, 82 strikeouts and six saves in 68 games.

He finished last season with an 11.30 K/9, 1.93 BB/9 and 0.69 HR/9 rates. He was successful against both righties and lefties, .192 and .210 batting average, respectively. He was very good at home, 2.10 ERA and 0.903 WHIP, but he was surprisingly even better on the road, 0.87 ERA and 0.97 WHIP.

There are a lot of teams that would have loved to have the services of Darren O’Day, especially the Atlanta Braves and Colorado Rockies, 29th and 30th in bullpen ERA. However, he decided to remain at home in Baltimore and will be the eighth-inning guy.

Darren O’Day has seen an increase role in save situations, two in 2013, four in 2014 and six in 2015. Does he get eight in 2016? As much as I love patterns, I don’t think that will be the case. I do think that he will get some saves. I can’t put an exact number on it because saves are arbitrary based on game situations and if Britton was used the day before. I am confident enough to estimate four to five saves, though.

Next: San Francisco Giants Sign Johnny Cueto

There is some value in non-closers, especially in deeper leagues. Darren O’Day is not just any non-closer. He is a very effective reliever, dominating batters on both sides of the plate. If Britton misses any time next season, O’Day will be atop the waiver wire list. The Orioles were able to re-sign a big part of their bullpen and fantasy owners should take notice to the value he has for Baltimore. He is a big part of this team and has a clear-cut role.

Projections: 4-2, 1.73 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, 78 strikeouts, four saves

Draft: Round 22