The Royals have released veteran left-handed reliever Joe Beimel from their Triple-A affiliate in Omaha, according to MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan (Twitter link). Beimel had signed a minors pact with Kansas City in late May.
Beimel posted a 4.30 ERA in 14 2/3 innings with Omaha, issuing eight walks against six strikeouts in his fairly brief stint with the Royals. Prior to that, he had reportedly agreed to a minor league deal with the Marlins, but Miami axed the agreement based on issues that popped up when Beimel was taking his physical.
The 39-year-old Beimel spent the 2014-15 seasons with the Mariners, where he posted a 3.12 ERA in 92 1/3 innings. He saw quite a bit of his work come against left-handed batters and held them to a paltry .226/.281/.381 batting line in that two year stretch. His struggles against righties were notable, however, as he walked more right-handed hitters than he struck out in that time. He’s best-suited as a lefty specialist, though he actually struggled with lefties in 2015 and yielded a .796 OPS against them in his brief sample of 29 minor league plate appearances this year.
Indians should sign Beimel/Mujica. Tired of Tito only pitching guys with track records in key situations. You got House up from the minors to face lefties & w/bases loaded & Gardner up it’s Otero? That’s why that game was lost to Yankees. The extra inning game vs. the Yankees he used Hunter (who’s been shaky lately) over Colon/Adams. Adams who pitches upper nineties with decent secondary stuff pitches in a mop-up role or first guy out of the pen’ (Sun. Carrasco early KO) every time he’s with the big league club. Go ahead sign these cast offs Tribe because Tito has 3 guys in the ‘pen that he’s very scared to use in close games.
Mujica useful. Beimel is at the end of his career.
Beimel lost his fastball when they started drug testing