As noted by the Post’s latest beat writer in his lede, the move is also about reallocating money—with the exception of second wives, younger is cheaper—toward other another starter. It also probably didn’t hurt that Rainey boasts a triple-digit fastball, which is like cake to a fat kid for GM Mike Rizzo.
The move also adds another horse to the stable of mid-twenty-something, hard-throwing righthanders with control issues (e.g. Jimmy Cordero, Austin Adams, Trevor Gott).
For us, this messes up our annual crowd-sourcing of minor-league pitchers as even a flawed reliever is indeed an upgrade over the upper-minors depth in the system. I appreciate folks who’ve already re-submitted their lists and encourage those who haven’t already to do so.
Next up: the Rule 5 Draft, which will probably be more about which minor-leaguers arrive (Kaleb Fleck, we hardly knew ye) vs. those that depart.