The Diamondbacks have designated righty Jake Barrett for assignment, per a club announcement. His roster spot goes to just-signed righty Greg Holland.
Barrett, 27, is a former third-round pick who has thrown 93 1/3 innings for the Snakes over the past three years. He owns a 4.05 cumulative ERA with 8.5 K/9 against 4.3 BB/9.
Though he got off to a promising start back in 2016, when he worked off of a mid-nineties heater to generate a 12.3% swinging-strike rate, Barrett has since taken a step back. His whiff rate has trended down and his walk rate has gone up, leaving him with little in the way of MLB opportunities in 2018. He was effective last year at Triple-A, though, pitching to a 2.87 ERA with 11.3 K/9 and 4.9 BB/9 in 53 1/3 innings over 42 appearances.
indians will take a flyer on him to add to their cast of journeyman relievers
I think he’s more interesting than your typical DFA guy. His career ERA is over 2 runs higher at home than it is on the road (in relatively similar sample sizes), and about 5% more of his fly balls turn into homers in Arizona than they do anywhere else. Get him out of Arizona and you could be on to something.
I like looking at fringe roster guys that could end up being decent contributors, and you could probably do worse than a guy with a fastball at 94-96 who can keep the ball in the yard better in a different ballpark (plus he’s young and has shown flashes before). He’s probably worth a claim, and then see what happens from there.
I find 4.9 BB/9 as being far from effective.
If he didn’t have a wart he wouldn’t be on waivers. Teams don’t give up guys for nothing who don’t have issues. If he can reign in his command you might have a very solid reliever. Even if he doesn’t there’s guys who get by with less than stellar command.
Cub minor league sign
Mariners, Rays, Padres, Athletics. One of those 4 will sign him.
Most likely Mariners as the other teams you listed have plenty of better options. https://www.fangraphs.com/depthcharts.aspx?position=RP
He hasn’t been “waived”, he’s been DFA’d…..makes a difference…..he’s put up some decent numbers enough that some organization will likely trade a non-40 man guy for him…..that. plus if he was that high a pick, some scout somewhere probably has a file on him…..