The Marlins have optioned struggling former closer Steve Cishek to Double-A, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reports on Twitter. It’s a startling turn of events for the righty, who had already been taken out of his 9th-inning role.
Cishek, 28, had been one of the game’s more effective relievers in recent years — good enough to be viewed as a building block in the pen. Despite heavy speculation, the Fish held off on dealing Cishek — despite his rising cost — and expected him to lock down wins for a contending team.
Now, 19 1/3 innings into the 2015 season, he’s headed back to the minors to sort out his problems. Cishek has worked to a 6.98 ERA thus far, and while advanced metrics suggest he’s been better than that, there’s no denying that he has produced at a below-replacement-level clip this year.
Cishek’s velocity is down by more than a full tick on both his fastball and slider, and even more on his little-used change. Once a heavy groundball pitcher, he’s continued a notable decline in inducing grounders that started last season. Meanwhile, the same pitcher who produced better than 11 K/9 and less than 3 BB/9 in the 2014 campaign has posted just 7.9 strikeouts against an even more-troubling 4.7 walks per nine innings.
As things stand, Cishek looks to be a near-certain non-tender after the current season. Though he comes with two more years of arbitration control, Cishek commanded a saves-fueled $6.6MM arb salary this year after qualifying as a Super Two the year prior. Even assuming a minimal increase, that’s a lot of money to invest in a reliever, and he’ll have to show quite a bit to earn another payday from Miami.
Of course, the news is also the latest sign of trouble in Miami, which has dropped nine of thirteen ballgames since switching managers. While the pen has actually been quite good as a whole, there are plenty of problems elsewhere. First and foremost is the rotation. Already performing poorly, the staff has now seen Henderson Alvarez and Mat Latos join Jose Fernandez and Jarred Cosart on the DL.
About time!
Automatic blown save
Marlins are one of the top stories in MLB this year.
Interesting how the Marlins, Padres, White Sox and Red Sox got all the off-season pub with their juicy acquisitions – while it’s the Astros, Cubs and Twins that began bringing up young players from their long rebuilds, brought in a few key veteran players (but hardly big names), added new managers, and are the ones winning.
The Cubs got plenty of hype in the off season.
Not as contenders this year, though.
Lester was a pretty big name. The twins signed hunter and ervin santana even though he hasnt pitched yet. Astros just signed bullpen pieces but traded for gattis and valbuena, who combined have over 20 dingers.
Was in Vegas for the first week of the NCCA tournament and was tempted to throw some money on them. Glad I blew all moneyy on other worthwhile adventures…
Is there a reason he went to Double A not Triple A?
My guess is because Triple A parks are notoriously hitter friendly. So basically they want to bring up his confidence not destroy it. Not an expert, but that’s my best guess.
Yep, the Pacific Coast League is definitely not pitcher friendly.
Darn those Pacific Coast breezes in New Orleans.
More worried about all the other places in the PCL where pitchers are feasted on.
Although the Marlins AAA team in New Orleans does play in more of a pitcher-friendly park, the PCL is VERY tough on pitchers.
This has to be one of the most curious falls from grace, even as mercurial as closers can be. It just doesn’t make sense that a guy with his age and his stuff can go from lights out to awful over an off season.
Man, in one corner you have Joey Gallo in Texas being so good he skipped triple-A. In the other corner, you have Cishek being so *bad* he skipped triple-A.
Would not mind the Pirates trying to get him cheap and take a flier here. Let him work with Benedict and Searage, see if they can work their magic yet again.
Pap’s is ready and willing to be the man for the fish, phis willing to pay some money for a better [prospect.
What’s the deal with players coming off Tommy John as far as innings pitched the next year?. Most young pitchers increase their innings gradually each year, but those same young pitchers coming off Tommy John go full bore like Harvey. They are going from 0 innings to 200 innings.