The Diamondbacks have announced deals with two veteran hurlers. Both right-hander Ricky Nolasco and southpaw Marc Rzepczynski are slated to appear in MLB camp as non-roster invitees after signing minor-league pacts.
If he’s able to crack the roster, Rzepczysnki would earn at a $1.5MM rate, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network (via Twitter). His deal also includes a $500K incentives package.
Another pair of former MLB relievers is also joining the Arizona organization, albeit without camp invites. Righty Michael Kohn and lefty Lucas Luetge also have minors deals in place. Bob Nightengale of USA Today first tweeted Kohn’s deal.
Nolasco will be looking to break back into the majors after sitting out the 2018 season. He did make 33 starts in the 2017 campaign, and spent camp last year with the Royals, so he hasn’t been on the sidelines for all that long.
Even ignoring the absence, it has been some times since the 36-year-old was effective. Nolasco’s strong 2013 season earned him a four-year deal with the Twins, but he carries a 4.99 ERA with 6.8 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9 in the 575 innings he has thrown since that time.
The 33-year-old Rzepczynski did see MLB action last year, though he was knocked around in both the majors and minors in stints with the Mariners and Indians organizations. At his best, Rzepczynski is an exceedingly tough assignment for opposing left-handed hitters, who have hit just .227/.296/.305 against him in his career.
Kohn and Luetge are each even deeper comeback candidates. Neither has seen the majors since 2015 and neither played in the affiliated ranks at all in 2018.
I thought Nolasco retired?
Well he did pitch last year.
*Didn’t
Lol… Ricky Nolasco
“toaster shakins”
Snakes looking for that one extra pecota win to match the Cubs at 82.
Lucas Luetge? didnt know he was still around.
It’s going to take some strong PEDs to bring these arms back from the dead
DBacks sign Scrabble.
Ownership for this organization blows!
Did Rzepczynski have decent year in the past five years and missed it? I mean that I can’t recall
2013, 2014, 2016 he was decent and 2017 he was OK. As a LOOGY it’s easy for numbers to get skewered badly when you’re only facing a batter or two and takes quite a few good outings to balance out a bad night.
Why do so many of these guys who haven’t played in years get signed? Just don’t see where the upside is here.
Because teams want veterans on MiLB deals for spring training. They want their kids to mostly be in minor league camp. If a real prospect gets injured in spring training, they go on the MLB DL.
It’s about money.
In MN he was called Nicky Relapse-co. I just made that up.
Maybe they think Nolasco can be their Clay Buchholz of 2019. I don’t.
But Clay Buchholz was good the first time around. Nolasco was a 4 or 5 starter on his best days. The proposed three batter rule will make guys like Scrabble, (best nickname), obsolete.
TIL Nolasco and Rzepczynski didn’t retire, and Michael Kohn is still trying to make it.
I didn’t need to bother watching the Twins every 5th game when Ricky was here. Horrible then already.
Ricky No-LAST-o
Kohn will show out this year!