The Oakland Athletics continue to make sneaky under-the-radar moves. After adding the likes of Rajai Davis, Matt Joyce and Trevor Plouffe in free agency earlier in the offseason, the A's have signed former San Francisco Giants closer Santiago Casilla to a two-year, $11 million contract.
Casilla, 36, put up a 3.57 ERA and 1.19 WHIP while saving 31 games and striking out north of 10 batters per nine innings last season. He did, however, also lead the Majors in blown saves. This came off a span of six seasons in San Francisco where Casilla posted sub 3.00 ERA each year, tallying ERA's under 2.00 three times during that span.
The veteran returns to Oakland after playing parts of six seasons with the club to start his career. He also returns to the A's as nothing more than a set-up man.
The addition of Casilla strengthens an already solid bullpen. Assuming Sean Doolittle returns healthy, the likes of Doolittle, Ryan Madson, Ryan Dull and John Axford will all likely be ahead of Casilla in the pecking order.
From a fantasy perspective, this shortens the games for fantasy-relevant starters such as Sonny Gray and Jharel Cotton. That should really be the biggest takeaway here.