The Padres announced that they’ve re-signed righties Miguel Diaz and Pedro Avila to minor league contracts and assigned both to Triple-A El Paso. Both right-handers were non-tendered yesterday and will quickly return to the organization without occupying a 40-man roster spot.
Diaz, 25, has the most big league experience of the pair. The hard-throwing righty spent the 2017 season in San Diego’s bullpen after being selected out of the Brewers organization in the 2016 Rule 5 Draft. As one would expect for a 22-year-old jumping from Class-A ball to the Majors, it was a struggle for Diaz that year, as he was knocked around for a 7.34 ERA with 7.1 K/9, 5.4 BB/9 and a whopping 2.38 HR/9 in 41 2/3 frames.
After successfully navigating his Rule 5 rookie season in the Majors, Diaz opened the ’18 campaign in Double-A and pitched quite well through 65 1/3 innings there, logging a 2.35 ERA, 9.1 K/9, 4.1 BB/9 and a 56.4 percent grounder rate. Diaz was limited to just 36 2/3 innings between the the minors and the big leagues in 2019, however, as a torn meniscus in his knee required surgery and shelved him for much of the year. The Padres will now get another look at him while still gaining some 40-man flexibility.
Avila, just 22, made his MLB debut with a start against the D-backs in early April this season, allowing just one run in 5 1/3 innings. Unfortunately, an elbow strain wiped out most of his season, and he eventually underwent Tommy John surgery in a season that saw him toss just 29 1/3 innings. Acquired in a 2016 trade with the Nationals, Avila has still barely pitched above Class-A Advanced (just three Double-A starts in addition to his lone MLB appearance), and he’ll now be out until late in the 2020 season (if not the entirety of the year). He has a long road ahead of him before reemerging as a viable MLB option, but he won’t even turn 23 until January, so age is on his side.
Nice.
Win
Huh. Was sure one or both would of been claimed by Orioles Royals Tigers Marlins or some mysterious team. Was not expecting this.
Hopefully Diaz works out kinks and Avila recovers and they become pieces we can love in trades.
Diaz was never on waivers, therefore not claimable. Clearly, he, his agent, and the club had a deal in place to come back, almost certainly with an invite to big league camp.
The fact that Avila won’t throw competitively until 2021 and probably won’t be big league ready until 2022 makes it hard for even a rebuilding club to justify a 40-man spot.
Well … Preller did sign Garrett Richards. Just so he could rehab for a year. There may be another stupid GM out there. I doubt it, but you never know.
Except Richards is a proven big league starter and Avila has pitched 5.1 innings.
Richards is an oft-injured pitcher who is just coming off TJ surgery, and will probably be on an innings limit. It’s essentially $15MM for maybe 100-130 innings. IF he stays healthy.
This works out well for the Padres, they clear spots off the 40 and still retain these pitchers, but I’m kind of confused about how the non-tender plays into it.
I guess I’ve always thought of non-tenders in the context of arbitration and players who stand to earn more than the team is willing to pay so the team doesn’t tender a contract. However, these two are pre-arb, so is the basic premise here that SD just released these guys because they’re hurt and they felt like no one else would sign them?
I get how a team wouldn’t want to waste a 40 man spot claiming Avila when he was DFA’ed, but once these guys are non-tendered couldn’t they sign with anyone on a minor league deal like this? You’d think maybe they would look at a team with weak pitching prospects and go there, so instead of being like the 15th best pitching prospect in SD they could have more opportunities, but maybe they’re just loyal to the organization that’s rehabbing them?
Genuinely trying to understand how this little intricacy of roster construction works.
Two pitchers who may never remain in the Bigs, so nothing special here. I hope AJ continues to see the need for at least one if not two SP’s, via trade or FA. Also need a lead off hitter possibly an OF with good OBP and fast who can hit above .275.. Lastly dump Myers and pay 60% of his salary to any team who’ll take him. I also feel AJ may package Myers and Yates together for a SP. ( If Yates wants three years and $33M that may price him out of the picture so a trade is possible.)