Michael Wacha, signed for one year and $3 million, has been the biggest veteran addition to the Rays this offseason. It’s the type of deal a pitcher takes to partner up with a well-regarded pitching program when he’s looking to rebuild his value and sign a longer deal, and that a team takes when they want a steady presence with upside but aren’t willing or able to pay what it takes to land the more flashy names.
In part one we identified a group of pitchers whose raw stuff had similar pitch shape to Wacha’s in 2020, and it included a handful of those flashy names: Brandon Bielak, Max Scherzer, Griffin Canning, Luke Weaver, Tony Gonsolin, Zach Plesac, and Lance Lynn.