Hector Neris (RP, PHI) - Week 4 Waiver Wire Pickups

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ANALYSIS: After losing his closing job a year ago, Phillies reliever Hector Neris has found his way back into a part-time ninth-inning role. With David Robertson landing on the IL, the door has opened up for Neris to re-establish himself as a lights out option in the Phillies bullpen. Phillies manager Gabe Kapler mentioned before the season started that the bullpen wouldn’t have defined roles and they would approach the late innings based on matchups. This fact, coupled with Robertson’s injury, has netted Neris two of the team's five saves so far in 2019 as he’s put up a 2.57 ERA, 0.86 WHIP and a stellar 35.7% K-rate in 7.0 innings of work.

Neris struggled in 2018 finishing the year with a troublesome 5.10 ERA, but he has changed up his approach on the mound which has worked out well for the 29-year-old. Relying more on his wipeout split-finger, he’s thrown this pitch 74.2% of the time compared to 49.1% last season. It’s by far his best pitch, as hitters have only hit it to a .125 average, and they’re whiffing on this delivery a forceful 43.2% of the time. With this pitch, Neris has established over a 20% increase in his ground-ball rate up to 53.3% which is crucial because the home run was the main weakness for the right-hander in his lost 2018. If he can keep up this method of attacking hitters, Neris should have a nice bounce-back year and will provide stellar strikeout numbers and respectable ratio numbers. His overall value depends on how many save opportunities he’ll accumulate this year, but his early-season usage suggests that he’ll remain a top option for the club.