The Diamondbacks have agreed to terms with righty Clay Buchholz, according to Jared Carrabis of Barstool Sports (via Twitter). It’s a minors pact, per Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic (Twitter link).
The 33-year-old Buchholz was just released from his minor-league deal with the Royals after exercising an opt-out clause. He’ll now head to an Arizona organization that is dealing with some injury issues in the rotation.
D-Backs GM Mike Hazen is certainly well-acquainted with Buchholz from their mutual time with the Red Sox. That helps explain the connection here, though it remains unclear just what the Arizona organization plans to do with Buchholz, who is likely ready to join the MLB staff from a conditioning standpoint but may yet need to earn his way up.
In his 16 minor-league innings this year, Buchholz has limited the opposition to only two earned runs on ten hits. Of course, he has also recorded just nine strikeouts against seven strikeouts and missed almost all of the 2017 season due to injury after an inconsistent showing in the 2016 campaign.
That said, it wasn’t long ago that the Phillies were interested in adding the two-time All-Star at a $13.5MM salary in a swap with the Sox. And Buchholz, despite many ups and downs over the years, has compiled a lifetime 4.01 ERA in 1,175 career inning at the game’s highest level.
Miss you Claydro
Always a fan of Clay Buchholz in his prime. (Still feels weird saying that)
His 2017 13.5M team option was picked up by Bos, and he was traded to the Phillies in a 1-for-1 trade, that saved Bos $13.5M, as Phillies assumed all $13.5M. This trade put Boston under the luxury tax.
His four-seam fastball averaged 92.6 mph his last . but fell to 90.9 mph in two starts with the Phillies. He had drops with his sinker (92.5 mph to 90.1 mph) and cutter (89 mph to 86.9 mph).
An MRI revealed he suffered a partial tear in the flexor-pronator mass of his right forarm, and he had surgery to repair it. (Surgery came w/ 4 to 6 months recovery time)
Feels like he hasn’t been the same since that injury but I’m still rooting him, and he’s only 33. Good luck,!
His four-seam fastball averaged 92.6 mph his last season with Boston* but fell to 90.9 mph in two starts with the Phillies. He had drops to his sinker (92.5 mph to 90.1 mph) and cutter (89 mph to 86.9 mph).
You should just write for the site at this point!
Dont encourage this narcissist. He THINKS he can write for the site. I just see pointless ramble on nearly every article. And judging by the constant barrage of downvotes, so do others.
Just down vote and move on. I do.
“Don’t encourage this narcissist.” “He THINKS he can write for the site. I just see pointless ramble on nearly every article…”
You are the biggest trash poster on this site. You never contribute, but take shots at others. You don’t just down-vote and move on. You always feel need to trash my comments.
I’m not 1/4 the writer Jeff and these other writers are, and I’ll never be good enough to write for mlbtr. I am, but a humble guy writing in the comments’ section of an article for a player, show great respect and admiration for, hope he rebounds.
Unpredictably, click link I showed FunkMonkey and you’ll see 3rdstrike there trashing my post. He’s probably the one with the shill down-vote acct’s because he’s the only one ever talking about them.
Small typo in the fourth paragraph. “Nine strikeouts against seven strikeouts”
Why the downvotes? The way that this was pointed out was respectful and unlike some other typos that are pointed out here, this one is a bit harder to process. Again, there’s a way to respectfully point out mistakes and a way not to and this was the former.
Rule #1 – people on the internet are just trying to piss you off. Don’t ask these types of questions
Ah, if only human spell checker was a paying gig…..
I downvoted you. Enjoy.
try reading the local paper we have. it’s pathetic
The Diamondbacks need upper level rotation depth and Mike Hazen is familiar with him. Perfect match.
“Nine strikeouts against seven strikeouts” sounds great to me!
Typo. 9 k’s against 7 walks.
Why didn’t MLBTR ever mention he was no longer with the Royals? Do they always wait until the player signs with another team?
They did. It was posted 4 days ago.
mlbtraderumors.com/2018/05/royals-release-clay-buc…
Thanks. I completely missed that one! I’ve been waiting to hear that they were promoting him….
he was promoted to the dbacks organization. last to first.