Craig Breslow

And so when one opportunity was closed off, I wouldn't say that there was a strong

pivot in so much as there was an opportunity to reassess the opportunities in front of us and remain anchored to that commitment to improve our team.

And why is he the fit compared to some of these other guys that are out there?

Sure.

I think you start with a track record of success and particularly success in a really difficult division in a park that is a pretty offensive friendly environment and the ability to consistently manage contact.

And you think about the way that that translates to our park and our division and

and view that quite favorably.

And we feel like he's got every chance to be as good a pitcher for the next five years as he has been for the previous five.

And obviously, as it relates to free agency, what you're betting on is continued performance or improved performance.

And we've got strong reason to believe that he's someone who can thrive in our pitching infrastructure with Andrew Bailey and the rest of the group who have

uh, done a great job of maximizing the strengths of pitchers.

Um, and you know, what, what Ranger does very, very well, uh, is he's, he's got excellent command.

He's unpredictable.

He's got a very, very deep repertoire, uh, that keeps hitters off balance.

And we feel like he's going to be a very good pitcher for the next five years.

Yeah, so if you look at, you know, kind of the pitch usage, even last year, right, like, you know, kind of sinker and change up the predominant pitches.

But after that, I think the next three pitches in the repertoire all had equal use of like 16% per pitch, which means that if you are trying to predict the incoming pitch,

probably going to get it wrong and so when you think about velocity sure it gives pitchers more more room for error right there's some trade-off between velocity and command and the less command you have probably the more velocity and vice versa and uh you know ranger's just a guy who's been successful on the other side of that equation where the ability to locate five or six pitches and keep hitters off balance has been uh you know been the the recipe for success for him and it's one that we believe will uh will have real staying power

And also, do you feel like the training from that group to address the other needs makes some sense?

So there's no such thing as too much starting pitching.