Sliders the Rays should target in Free Agency

In an earlier article, I looked at the specific slider shapes the Rays have been looking for in their pitchers. I recommend reading that piece before this one, as it will provide a lot of good context.

Now that the specific slider shape the Rays value has been identified, the logical next question is: who is out there that Tampa Bay may target this offseason?

Using the same scatter plot from the earlier article, we can identify more pitchers with the unique combination of horizontal break and velocity on their sliders. This time, instead of highlighting the 3 Rays pitchers (Armstrong, Phillips, and Poppen), I’ve highlighted free agent pitchers whose sliders fall in the same area as them:

All six of those names listed are free agents as of today.