The Reds have agreed to terms with righty reliever Steve Delabar to a minor-league deal, radio pre-game host Lance McAllister writes. (The news was also reportedly on their radio broadcast earlier today.) Delabar is a client of Meister Sports Management. A Kentucky native, Delabar has history in the Cincinnati area, having pitched for the independent Florence Freedom in the Cincinnati suburbs before eventually making it to the big leagues.
The Reds currently have several key pitchers on the disabled list and have a number of apparent holes in both their rotation and their bullpen (leading to their recent additions of Ross Ohlendorf and Dan Straily). It’s easy to see how signing with the Reds could get Delabar back to the Majors in short order.
The Blue Jays released the 32-year-old Delabar earlier this week, paying him a fifth of the $835K salary to which he agreed this offseason. He was out of options. Delabar had a terrific 2013 campaign in which he struck out 12.6 batters per nine innings and earned a spot on the AL All-Star roster, but he has not been quite the same since a stint on the DL with shoulder soreness late that year (although it’s not clear that the shoulder issue has been the reason he’s struggled). His control, never a strength, left him in 2014, and he spent about half the season in the minors. Last year was similar, and he posted a 5.22 ERA and 4.3 BB/9 in 29 1/3 innings in the bigs. He did have 9.2 K/9 and mid-90s velocity, although he threw about 1.5 MPH less than he threw in 2013.
Best of luck to him. He was greaf with the Jays especially in 2013. If I remember he was doing a shoulder strengthening exercise which was adopted by some of the other pitchers on the team.
I wish him nothing but the best, met him a few times, he even threw me a ball. Great guy all around.
He still does a decent job of missing bats and his control, while poor, isn’t Carlos Marmol poor. Maybe something can still be salvaged.
Wow the garbage truck of pitchers has dropped its load at great American ball park… Some one call jimmy Haynes Paul Wilson and Danny graves