Last week, a veteran right-hander was designated for assignment. Not long ago, this pitcher was one of the best relievers in baseball. In fact, through the first half of the 2024 season, he maintained an ERA and FIP under 3.00. Yet, over the past couple of months, he has produced some of the ugliest numbers of any reliever in the sport. Following what was arguably the single worst appearance of his career, his team – the eighth he’s been a part of in his big league career – decided enough was enough. His club added him with the intention that he would play a key role in the postseason, but he quickly fell so far down the bullpen depth chart that he dropped off the roster entirely. Oh, and no, it’s not the guy you’re thinking of. I’m talking about Dylan Floro.
Less than two months after scooping him up at the trade deadline, the Diamondbacks DFA’d Floro on Sunday. They released him two days later. His 2024 season almost certainly has come to an early close. Floro isn’t Craig Kimbrel. He’s never been the Rolaids Reliever of the Year, nor the DHL Delivery Man of the Year, nor the GameStop Late-Game Stopper of the Year, though admittedly, I made the last one up. Floro has been cut from his team’s 40-man roster more times (six) than Kimbrel has been left off the All-Star roster (five). You can tell as much from the headshots on their player pages. Floro looks utterly forlorn, resigned to play another meaningless season of Major League Baseball. Kimbrel is smiling like he thinks he’s pulling off that haircut. That’s the kind of confidence that only comes with nine All-Star appearances: Indeed, Kimbrel was a potential Hall of Famer before Floro had so much as a single win, hold, or save.
Just dating back to Floro’s first full season, in 2018, Kimbrel has made three All-Star teams, racked up 291 saves, and won a World Series, earning upwards of $80 million in the process. Yet, it’s Floro who has thrown more innings with a lower ERA, lower FIP, and higher WAR during that seven-season span. I won’t blame you if you’re still skeptical, but I stand by my assertion that, until quite recently, Floro was one of the top relievers in the game.
When the Diamondbacks acquired Floro at this year’s deadline, I thought it might prove to be one of the smartest, under-the-radar trades of the season. A right-handed pitcher who could keep the ball in the yard was precisely what Arizona’s bullpen needed. Not only did Floro have a 2.06 ERA and 1.0 WAR over his first 51 games with the Nationals, but he also had casually and quietly been one of the league’s more consistently valuable relievers over the past seven years.
Since 2018, he had thrown 361 2/3 innings, an average of 60 per 162-game campaign. His FIP had been at least 20% better than league average every year, and he had produced at least 0.6 WAR every season. All in all, from his first pitch in 2018 through July 30, 2024, Floro accumulated 6.7 WAR. That’s an average of just over 1.1 WAR per full season. Only nine relievers compiled more WAR than Floro in that time: Top 10 RP by WAR (March 29, 2018–July 30, 2024) Opening Day 2018 to trade deadline 2024. From Josh Hader to Devin Williams, a list like that speaks for itself.
It’s such an impressive group of names that I don’t even need to explain why it’s such an impressive group of names. Aside from Floro, the only one who isn’t a star closer is Taylor Rogers, who still happens to be a former All-Star and one of the 10 highest-paid relievers in the league this year. I don’t mean to suggest that Floro is the same caliber pitcher as any of those other arms, but his place on that list is clear evidence he’s had a much better career than most people probably realize.
