Posted by Jason Wojciechowski on August 7, 2015 at 10:00 PM
From 2009 to present, among relievers with at least 300 innings pitched over that span, Clippard ranks 29th in FIP (FanGraphs version), sandwiched between Francisco Rodriguez and LaTroy Hawkins. Hence "sub-elite." FIP probably undersells him because over that span he's allowed just a .229 BABIP despite nearly 500 innings pitched, but his RA doesn't add up to elite either. Not that he's not excellent -- the very fact that he has nearly 500 innings of relief over the last six-plus years attests to that -- but there's a clear gulf between him and the actually elite relievers like Koji Uehara, Kenley Jansen, and Greg Holland, to say nothing of Craig Kimbrel.