The Marlins are discussing a deal with free-agent righty Dustin McGowan, tweets SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo. The veteran reliever was in Spring Training with the Rays on a minor league deal but was granted his release in early March when he learned he would not make the 25-man roster. He’s represented by ACES.
McGowan is no stranger to South Florida, having spent the 2016-17 seasons with the Marlins. In that time, he totaled 144 2/3 innings of 3.86 ERA ball with 7.9 K/9, 3.7 BB/9 and 1.2 HR/9 with a 53 percent ground-ball rate. A starter early in his career with the Blue Jays, McGowan has worked almost entirely out of the bullpen since 2013 — often tossing more than one inning per appearance — and logged a 4.08 ERA in 275 2/3 frames in that time.
Miami entered the season with Brad Ziegler as its closer and a pair of quality setup pieces behind him in the form of Kyle Barraclough and Drew Steckenrider. Beyond that trio, though, the relief corps has been largely pieced together, currently featuring Junichi Tazawa, Tayron Guerrero, Jarlin Garcia, Odrisamer Despaigne, Chris O’Grady and Jacob Turner.
Adding McGowan to the mix — presumably down the line a bit, as he’d likely need a tune-up in the minors — would give the Fish some more experience and some more length out of their bullpen. That seems particularly important to a club that’s currently relying on righty Jose Urena and three rookies (Dillon Peters, Trevor Richards and Caleb Smith) in a four-man rotation while Dan Straily recovers from a forearm issue.
He was dominant last year until that horrible August and end of September that he had. I wouldn’t mind seeing him get a shot, although there are a couple of minor league bullpen arms I’d probably rather see get a shot later in the season
Marlins will need to scan the waiver wire full time this year and reel in every reliever like McGowan. That bullpen will have to soak up a ton of innings, so they need to keep the reinforcements coming non-stop.
yikes. that rotation is rough. more than I thought