Baltimore Orioles acquire Jeremy Hellickson from Phillies
By Ben Palmer
The Baltimore Orioles have acquired pitcher Jeremy Hellickson and cash from the Philadelphia Phillies for outfielder Hyun Soo Kim, a prospect, and international bonus money.
The Baltimore Orioles have acquired pitcher Jeremy Hellickson and cash from the Philadelphia Phillies for outfielder Hyun Soo Kim, Double-A pitcher Garrett Cleavinger, and international bonus money, according to Ken Rosenthal on Twitter.
In regards to Hellickson, Baltimore Orioles GM Dan Duquette told PressBoxOnline.com’s Rich Dubroff (Twitter links), “Jeremy Hellickson is a solid, dependable, veteran Major League starter who knows how to win in the American League. He should provide some quality innings for the Orioles.”
This move is somewhat confusing for the Baltimore Orioles, as they’re sitting at 48-54 entering Saturday, 6.5 games back from the second AL Wild Card spot, and they’ve acquired a 30-year-old starting pitcher whose stats generally aren’t much better than anyone else in the Orioles current rotation.
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What’s especially interesting is that, according to Rosenthal (on Twitter), the team is still trying to move relievers Zach Britton and Brad Brach. Rosenthal suggests that acquiring Hellickson was just something the team needed to do to get through the rest of the season than anything else.
Hellickson hasn’t been great this year, and that’s been in the National League, a league that’s typically pitcher-friendly. He’s 6-5 on the year with a 4.73 ERA, a 1.26 WHIP, and a 5.21 K/9. What’s worse is that his 4.73 ERA comes along with a .255 BABIP and a 5.50 FIP, suggesting that the ERA will likely get worse as the season goes on.
Hellickson also gives up loads of fly balls, with a 42.6% fly ball rate, as well as lots of home runs, as his HR/FB rate sits at 14.4%, neither of which will translate well in the hitter-friendly AL East. Based on his stats, I’d project him to pitch to a high-4’s ERA the rest of the year, something that’s honestly not going to be all that much better than what the team already has.
Hellickson earned Rookie of the Year honors after his excellent 2011 campaign, pitching to a 2.95 ERA over 185 innings. He’s never been able to quite live up to his rookie year however, averaging a 4.23 ERA from 2012 on.
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Hellickson accepted a qualifying offer from the Phillies last season and is owed around $6.1 million through the end of this year, however the Phillies sent along cash with Hellickson to make the deal more appealing to the Orioles.