The Brewers have signed righthander Mark DiFelice to a minor league contract with an invitation to Major League Spring Training next season according to MLB.com's Adam McCalvy. He is already pitching in the team's instructional league program in Arizona.
The 34-year-old DiFelice has not pitched at all this season after having surgery to repair a torn labrum and rotator cuff in his throwing shoulder. He proved to be a valuable setup man for the Brew Crew in 2009, turning in 51.2 innings of 3.66 ERA ball with an 8.4 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9. DiFelice did that largely on the strength of a cut fastball, which FanGraphs says he threw a whopping 81.6% of the time.
The Brewers have had some success bringing back injured pitchers, most notably Chris Capuano this season.
I remember his MLB debut in 2008. I think it was against the Cubs at Wrigley late in the season…Ben Sheets gave up a line drive home run to Aramis in that game and then got yanked after 3.0 innings. I also remember Jason Marquis giving up a bases loaded triple to Pince Fielder in that game as well. Anyway, I had high hopes for Mark DiFelice.
Now if anyone ever wonders who the first player was to get an official Major League spring training invite to 2011 Spring Training…It was Mark DiFelice! Cool!
I’m glad they’re taking a small chance with him. When he was good, he was very good.
I am happy for Capuano finally making it back. He has really had a rough go of it. It’s nice to see the hard work pay off.
Great low risk, high reward move here. The Brewers have had success with injury plagued/castoff players that no one else wanted – Capuano, McGhee, Edmonds, Kameron Loe, etc. If only Doug Melvin could get two decent SPs to go along with Gallardo and Wolf, the Brewers would be in contention.
Mike’s bro?
Correct, sir.
DiFelice was one of my favorite stories of 2008. It’d be fantastic to see him work his way back to the Bigs.