Steve Cishek
Position: RP
Bats/Throws: Right/Right
Age: 33 (June 18, 1986)
Traditional 2019 Stats: 2.95 ERA, 57 K, 29 BB, 1.20 WHIP over 70 appearances (64 IP)
Advanced Stats: 151 ERA+, 4.54 FIP, 4.95 xFIP, 8.02 K/9, 4.08 BB/9, 0.98 HR/9, 25.3% soft-hit rate, 27.0% hard-hit rate, 0.2 fWAR, 1.8bWAR
A soft-tossing — by today’s standards — right-hander with the funkiest of sidearm deliveries, Steve Cishek has quite possibly been one of the most efficient, yet unheralded, relievers in baseball since making his MLB debut in 2010.
A relief pitcher carrying a 2.98 ERA into his 11th MLB season is no easy task. Pulling off that feat while barely topping 90 MPH with his sinker and four-seamer since 2016 (90.5 MPH averages on both pitches last season) is practically unheard of.
Using mostly his sinker (467 thrown in 2019; .261 BAA, .405 SLGA) and his slider (444 thrown; .200 BAA, .357 SLGA) while mixing in a four-seamer (189 pitches; .089 BAA, .089 SLGA), the 33-year-old consistently gets the job done.
Plus, he’s effective against both righties (.206/.285/.298 slash against with the Cubs in 2019) and lefties (.216/.358/.375), which should bode well in the first season with the three-batter minimum.
Per Baseball Savant, Cishek’s 25.9 percent hard-hit rate and 84.5 MPH average exit velocity induced rank among the top one percent in all of baseball, and his barrel rate (5.7 percent) is over a half a percentage point less than league average (6.3 percent).
Clearly, Cishek has perfected the art of keeping hitters off-balance.
Contract
Cishek played out his two-year, $13 million deal with the Cubs (2.55 ERA, 135 K, 57 BB over 150 appearances; 134.1 IP) and now enters free agency for the second time in his career.
Having performed extremely well during his time in Chicago, yet somewhat under the radar, it’s conceivable that Cishek might only garner a meager raise. Though judging by his advanced metrics and the extent MLB teams have appeared to value them this offseason (see Zack Wheeler), it’s entirely possible he’ll command a more substantial salary.
MLBTR has Cishek pegged to receive a two-year, $10 million deal. I find it hard to believe he’s going to take a pay cut after the production levels he’s enjoyed over the last few seasons, but we shall see.
Recommendation
Having missed the boat on a number of free-agent relievers already, the New York Mets would be hard-pressed to find better value — monetary or on-field — than Cishek among what’s left of the rapidly dwindling market.
Adding an efficient, effective Cishek to a bullpen corps that already includes some devastating arms in Seth Lugo, Edwin Diaz, and Justin Wilson, among others (how could we forget Brad Brach and Robert Gsellman?) would be a great area for Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen to focus his energies — sooner rather than later.
