Veteran right-handed reliever Carlos Torres has opted out of his minor league contract with the Padres, MLBTR has learned.
Torres, 36, inked a minor league pact with the Padres back in January, and while he struggled in Spring Training, he’s had a solid start to his season in Triple-A El Paso. Through 25 1/3 frames, Torres is sporting a 2.49 ERA with a 23-to-10 K/BB ratio and a 50.7 percent ground-ball rate.
Torres has appeared in the Majors in each of the past eight seasons and in 10 of the past dating back to 2009. While he tossed only 9 2/3 innings in the Majors last year, all with the Nationals, he was a big league regular from 2012-17, pitching to a 3.73 ERA with 7.9 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9 in a total of 449 innings between the Rockies, Mets and Brewers. Over that stretch, Torres averaged 56 appearances and 75 innings per season. It was a small sample of work, but last year’s 93 mph average fastball was actually an improvement over his career average of 91.7 mph.
Given his track record at the MLB level, solid showing to this point in the Pacific Coast League and the sheer number of clubs eyeing bullpen depth, Torres should be able to latch on with another club’s Triple-A affiliate at the very least.
To the Rangers it is.
They could do worse and usually do!
A’s gotta be in on him
welcome back to Washington Carlos
36…. If say it would have to be a club with weak depth or pitchers on the IL
Have you actually seen this guy? He’s in great shape – has the body of a 25 year-old and a rubber arm. Dude is in better shape than 90% of other MLB players. I think he’s a great option for no less than 5-6 teams.
His being 36 is your reason for that? Verlander is 36 too. I seem to remember him having a rubber arm; a team could do worse than try him in a mop up role. But age isn’t going to come into play here. No team’s going to sign him to a multi year contract or anything.
With the Padres bullpen being so taxed by the starters going only 4-5 inning in most games, I am surprised that they let Torres go.
Not a matter of letting him go. His minor league contract allowed him to opt out. And he did.
Had they promoted him, he wouldn’t have opted out. He probably told them as much before he did opt out, so in a sense they kinda did.
Promote a 36-year-old reliever and lose a 40-man roster spot?
They must not care about 40-man roster spots too much if they are wasting one on Jose Pirela and gave one to Cal Quantrill for just two starts.
Must not care?
Sure.
(Good Lord)
Rangers will sign him in the next couple of days
They’re not that smart. And I suspect they’re trying to tank.
Someone better tell hunter pence about the tanking…
Hunter pence doesnt care if his team is tanking or not. He has his two rings and is motivated by staying in the ML, not winning. Clearly he himself tanked after singing a fat contract in SF. He was more focused on his wife’s social media life and coffee venture than turning his career around. Reality struck when he was almost forced into retirement. He cares about playing. Not winning. Not anymore.
Twins–they have no one at AAA that can improve their current bullpen.
Here is an opportunity for Pittsburgh.
I always thought that this guy was a decent back of the bullpen pitcher.
They need another reliever and have three qualified AAAA candidates to go to Indianapolis.
you gonna love Wrigley boiii
The Padres need better relievers now. Hard to believe they would let this guy go if they felt he he could pitch well.
Apparently they don’t
I guess the only one real question here: Does he still wear the helmet hat?
Different guy.
link to baseball-reference.com
Oh. Thanks guys.
He didn’t suck enough for Preller to want to keep or promote. Ref, Jered Weaver, Erik Johnson, et al.