2 years agoThroughout his first 350 big league innings, Jorge Lopez owned a sweet 6.04 ERA. So despite him being converted into a reliever, it's safe to say he wasn't on many 2022 fantasy radars. But after Baltimore traded both Cole Sulser and Tanner Scott to Miami just before the season, Lopez stepped up in a big way. After his first 48.1 innings of the season he owned a sparkling 1.68 ER, 0.97 WHIP, 27.6 K% and had nailed down 19 saves. Then as one does with an over-performing reliever, Lopez was shipped to Minnesota at the trade deadline. The magic stayed in Baltimore, however. For the rest of the season the breakout reliever struggled to the tune of a 4.37 ERA, 1.63 WHIP, and a 17.6 K%. That's the bad news. The good news is nothing changed substantially in his velocity or pitch mix. His primary pitch, the sinker, actually gained more movement as the season went on as his production started to dip. Obviously a tough "break" for a pitcher that had been living on his sinker up in the zone, and understandably a tall order to get it squared away in the thick of the season. Assuming the six months away is long enough to smooth out the sinker kinks, or skinks, we should expect to see Jorge Lopez seeing the rough majority share of Minnesota save chances in 2023. Jhoan Duran is the superior talent, but it appears Rocco Baldelli prefers to utilize him in a fireman role instead of only in the 9th - which will lead to Jorge Lopez actually being a great safety net for those in need of saves around pick ~252.--JB Branson - RotoBaller