Peter Gammons tweets that Jesse Crain “may be the hottest reliever” on the market after Joaquin Benoit signed with the Tigers, reporting that the Rays, Rockies, Dodgers, Diamondbacks, Mariners, Orioles, Cubs, Nationals, and Blue Jays are “already in” the bidding for the 29-year-old right-hander.
Crain was offered arbitration by the Twins, but as a Type B free agent he doesn’t require forfeiting a draft pick to sign and could be viewed by some teams as a closer option after seven seasons setting up Joe Nathan in Minnesota.
Crain has said previously that he’d be interested in re-signing with the Twins, but indicated that the chance to close somewhere would take precedence over any offers to continue setting up and is very well-positioned to hit the open market.
He’s still on the right side of 30, has a 3.42 career ERA and mid-90s fastball velocity to match, is coming off his most impressive season, and was nearly unhittable with a 1.42 ERA, .170 opponents’ batting average, and 42/20 K/BB ratio in his final 45 appearances (before serving up a homer to Mark Teixeira in the playoffs).