DECEMBER 12: McGowan receives a $1.75MM guarantee, Heyman tweets.
DECEMBER 7, 1:32pm: The Marlins and McGowan are in agreement on a one-year, Major League contract, tweets Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports.
11:58am: The Marlins are close to re-signing right-hander Dustin McGowan, reports MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro (via Twitter). It is not clear at this point whether or not the veteran hurler stands to receive a major league deal.
McGowan, 34, turned in a nice year for the Marlins in 2016 after joining the organization as a minor-league free agent. Over 67 frames, he worked to a 2.82 ERA on just 49 hits. McGowan struck out 8.5 and walked 4.4 batters per nine innings.
Once a promising starter, McGowan saw his career derailed by injuries. He has made just 13 starts since he last worked consistently from a rotation back in 2008, and has compiled only 219 total innings since the start of the 2009 season. But the bulk of those have come over the past several years, and McGowan just tied a career-high in average fastball velocity (94.7 mph), so there’s some reason to believe that there’s still some life left in hism
Dustin McGowan has made a remarkably long career, especially as a right-handed pitcher. He’s never quite stuck in the bigs, between devastating injuries in his 20s and inconsistent play in his 30s, but he’s still around getting paid to play ball. Good for him.
Well said.
How could he not get a major league contract after a 2.82 era. Always like hearing he is still playing , really wished he coulda figured it out for the Jays
Because his other stats are underwhelming.
u mean like the 95 mph average fastball?
McGowan walked a lot of guys, as did the entire Marlins bullpen (seriously, did they set the record for bullpen walks? b/c it definitely felt like they at least had to approach it), but he earned a Major League contract after he pitched so well for the Marlins, including eating innings for them in tough situations. He still has great life on his fastball, and he was able to generate some soft contact, and miss bats. It was fun to watch him pitch last year, especially knowing what he has gone through. Hopefully though, this doesnt preclude the Marlins from adding other pieces, like Koji Uehara and Brad Ziegler, to the bullpen, although with this Locke deal, it honestly doesnt matter b/c the Marlins obviously dont care