The Marlins have re-signed right-hander Kevin Slowey to a minor league deal, according to Baseball America's Matt Eddy (on Twitter). Slowey is a client of Relativity Baseball (formerly known as SFX).
The 29-year-old Slowey pitched 92 1/3 innings for the Marlins in 2013, posting a 4.11 ERA with 7.4 K/9, 1.8 BB/9 and a minuscule 28.7 percent ground-ball rate. Slowey has always been an extreme fly-ball pitcher but has long boasted elite command as well, as evidenced by his career 1.5 BB/9 rate. Last season marked his first big league action in a uniform other than that of the Minnesota Twins, who selected him out of Winthrop University in the second round of the 2005 draft.
Slowey will face an uphill battle to earn another rotation spot in Miami, as Jose Fernandez, Nathan Eovaldi, Henderson Alvarez and Jacob Turner all figure to be locks. He will have competition in the form of Tom Koehler and Brian Flynn, with top prospects such as Andrew Heaney and Justin Nicolino not far behind.
Eddy also reports that Miami signed right-hander Craig Westcott and lefty Jose Gonzalez. The 27-year-old Westcott posted a 4.19 ERA with 5.8 K/9 and 3.8 BB/9 in 144 innings for the Giants' Double-A affiliate in 2013. Gonzalez, 23, posted a 5.17 ERA with 9.0 K/9 and 4.0 BB/9 in 54 innings of relief across High-A and Double-A with the Twins last season and yielded a .276/.364/.442 batting line to his opponents.
Career 1.5 BB/9*
I just checked the baseball reference link – he had a 1.8 BB/9 last season but it is indeed 1.5 for his career.
Also as a Marlins fan, I liked Kevin Slowey last year. He posted a 1.81 ERA through his first 7 starts but then kinda fell off afterwards. If healthy, I fully expect him to compete for the last rotation spot plus be a more than capable spot starter when one of our SPs inevitably gets injured. Good re-signing.
Bit surprised that he couldn’t get a major league deal. His problem has been staying healthy recently. I think he could be a capable #5 for many teams.