Chad Durbin Signs with Washington Nationals

Chad Durbin‘s tenure with the Indians is officially over. The 34-year-old right-hander has reportedly signed a minor-league deal with the Washington Nationals.

After signing a last-minute deal with Cleveland last March, Durbin went 2-2 with a 5.53 ERA and three holds in 56 appearances out of the bullpen for the Tribe in 2011. He struck out 59 batters while allowing 26 walks in 68.1 innings.

There’s some evidence that Durbin’s struggles this year were at least partially due to bad luck. His .339 BABIP was almost 40 points higher than his career mark, and he also suffered from an uncharacteristically high 13 percent HR/FB rate in a down offensive year. As a result, he had a solid 4.26 xFIP and a very good 3.76 SIERA.

This was Durbin’s second go-round with the Tribe, and it was far more successful than the last one. In 2003-4, he went 5-7 with a 6.75 ERA in 60 innings with Cleveland before the Arizona Diamondbacks took him in an August 2004 waiver claim.

Durbin owns a career 38-46 record in 364 appearances (75 starts) across 12 MLB seasons with five teams. Bill James projects him for a 4.56 ERA in 75 innings this year, while RotoChamp has him throwing 50 frames with a 4.32 ERA.

It wasn’t a surprise to see Durbin sign elsewhere—there hadn’t been any rumors about the Indians trying to re-sign him—but now his moving on is official. Best of luck to him in the rest of his MLB career.

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