Matt Andriese is coming off a pretty successful sophomore year, all things considered. You might look at his 4.37 ERA for 2016 and think it wasn’t all that great, but his 3.78 FIP, 3.98 xFIP and 3.90 SIERA say otherwise. For that reason, Fangraphs gave Andriese 2.0 fWAR for his 2016 efforts. That’s about as good as you could ask from a 5th or 6th starter or long reliever.
The problem is, he played both of those roles in 2016 and showed potential to excel at both. Which should the Rays go forward with?
If you watched his start when he threw a complete game shut out on May 15th, you might be convinced that the Rays should continue to develop him as a starter.