The Mets have claimed righty Chris Beck off waivers from the White Sox, per club announcements. The 27-year-old had been designated for assignment by the Chicago organization.
Beck came up as a starter but has mostly worked in a relief role in recent years. He has 119 2/3 MLB innings under his belt, with a cumulative 5.94 ERA and 6.1 K/9 against 5.0 BB/9. The results have improved so far in 2018, as Beck owns a 4.18 ERA in 23 2/3 frames. Frankly, the peripherals don’t really indicate that he has made any strides, though Beck is working at a career-high 95.8 mph with his average fastball.
Perhaps the Mets feel they can unlock something from the former second-rounder. Of course, the club also may simply feel Beck will help improve the team’s depth situation as several hurlers filter back from the DL.
Championship.
So much for the White Sox sliding him through waivers and stashing him at AAA Charlotte. Perhaps Chris Beck got some props from former White Sox teammates Todd Frazier and Anthony Swarzak in NY and the Mets agreed with their assessment.
Seems like a short term maneuver with the team DFAing him when others return off the DL.
Beck could pitch to an ERA of 6 with the Mets and actually IMPROVE the bullpen ERA.
so true…facepalm
For his sake just hope the others come back soon so he is able to get away from Flushing before he gets injured.
The good news is that he got a vaccine to prevent Timmy John
Tommy John, shoulder surgery or problems with his fingers or whatever excuse Thor has for not pitching good hitting teams.
Why?
Why not?
Simply because they believe he’s better than other options they currently have without having to make other 40 man roster moves.
He’s got a decent slider and a pretty big fastball, but a 27-year old with no control who’s out of minor league options doesn’t bring with him high expectations.
Former high draft picks usually get more opportunities even when their class was six years in the past like Chris Beck. He was the White Sox 2nd round pick out of Georgia Southern University in 2012 so he clearly had some upside potential that maybe Chicago just couldn’t fully tap into.
Beck was a useful bullpen arm this season but the White Sox had to open up a spot on their active and reserve rosters when Carlos Rodon came off of the 60-day DL this past weekend. I believe the White Sox thought they could slide him through waivers and then stash him at AAA Charlotte until they had an opportunity to flip a few of their more “valuable” veteran relievers like Joakim Soria, Luis Avilan, Bruce Rondon and/or Xavier Cedeno this summer.
With Nate Jones returning to his second home, the disabled list, Chisox may wish they had Beck back. Or not.
The White Sox do have one more veteran bullpen arm still stashed at AAA who has done a nice job but has yet to be promoted…RHP Jeanmar Gomez. baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=gom…
Gomez is not on the 40-man roster so the White Sox would have to make a corresponding move in order to add him to the active one. Because of this they chose to “promote” Juan Minaya instead who had been on the reserve list.
They could use Glen Beck instead….wouldn’t matter much……
Jeff Beck might have added an electric arm or simply Beck if they just wanted to fine tune their bullpen. lol