Former Milwaukee Brewers reliever Josh Hader is the top closer available in free agency this off-season. He has been an All-Star on five occasions and won the Trevor Hoffman reliever of the year award on three different occasions. His consistent success over the last seven years has him in position to surpass Edwin Diaz for the largest contract of a relief pitcher in which he received five years, $102 million from the New York Mets.
There are lots of teams that would benefit from adding a lock down closer such as Josh Hader. The biggest question is which teams can afford to pay him that large sum of money. According to Jon Heyman his home team has been in contact with him, but from a financial perspective his cost may be too high for them.
Ex-Milwaukee Brewers reliever and current free agent Josh Hader is receiving interest from the Baltimore Orioles.
In a report from Jon Heyman he revealed that the Baltimore Orioles are seeking a back end reliever and that they have made contact with Josh Hader. Baltimore will be without closer Felix Bautista in 2024 due to him undergoing elbow surgery, but re-acquiring the game’s best free agent reliever may be out of their price range.
Re-acquiring is used because Josh Hader was originally drafted by the Orioles in 2012. Additionally he grew up 18 miles away from Baltimore and attended ballgames at Camden Yards as a kid. The Orioles traded him and another prospect in 2013 to Houston for Bud Norris. From there he made a name for himself with the Milwaukee Brewers and eventually spent the last year and a half with the San Diego Padres.
For Josh Hader a homecoming to Baltimore has to be on his mind. In 2022 he got the opportunity to pitch in Camden Yards and while reflecting on his baseball journey he said, “being drafted by the team (Orioles) and thinking I have a chance to play in the stadium where I grew up at and be the hometown kid that hopefully makes it to the big leagues with the team, but then the business side came in.”
Josh Hader is no stranger to the business side of baseball and that is likely how he is approaching free agency. The southpaw will be 30 years old next April and this winter is his first opportunity to have financial security for a prolonged period of time. It is reasonable to assume that whichever team ends up offering more than Edwin Diaz’s $102 million has a good chance of winning the Josh Hader sweepstakes.
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