Monday’s minor moves from around the game…
- The Padres have signed right-hander Jacob Rhame to a minor league contract with an invitation to major league spring training, Dennis Lin of The Athletic tweets. While Rhame spent time with the Angels organization last season, he didn’t appear in any of their games. Before joining the Halos, Rhame appeared in the majors as a Met in each season from 2017-19, but he could only manage a 6.23 ERA/6.06 FIP with 7.55 K/9 and 4.53 BB/9 in that 47 2/3-inning span. The 27-year-old has, however, been successful in Triple-A, where he owns a 3.73 ERA with 10.8 K/9 against 2.8 BB/9 over 169 innings.
- The Tigers announced the addition of lefty reliever Ian Krol on a minors pact that comes with an invitation to big league camp. This will be the second Tigers stint for Krol, whom they first acquired from the Nationals in a 2013 trade centering on Doug Fister. Krol became a part of the Tigers’ bullpen from 2014-15, but he was unable to establish himself as a reliable reliever in Detroit. He had a career year the next season as a member of the Braves, with whom he threw 51 innings of 3.18 ERA/2.91 FIP ball and notched 9.88 K/9 and 2.29 BB/9. Things have since gone downhill for Krol, who had a poor 2017 with the Braves, threw only two MLB frames as an Angel in 2018, and hasn’t resurfaced in the majors. He was hit with a 50-game suspension for a drug of abuse in 2019 and spent last season pitching independent ball.
Welcome back Ian!
Welcome back to Toledo maybe! But, Krol’s a low-risk depth signing. I hope this isn’t the highlight of the offseason (after Hinch and the coaching staff)!
I hear you loud and clear on that! Let’s make some moves, do something for us fans.
Tigers hit rock bottom.
You’ve got the Wayback Machine set to 2019? Its almost 2021!
Welcome back to the NL West Jacob Rhame! Padres > Mets
LOL
Had to look that one up. I would have never guessed that he was the PTBNL the Mets got for Granderson.
Kinda shows how random some of the pieces traded in rentals can be.
Love, rhame on me
Krol’s a guy I feel bad for… I mean he was a somewhat successful LOOGY and then out of no where with the implementation of the 3-batter minimum his role/job was essentially taken out from under him. I mean maybe he isn’t the best example as maybe he already wasn’t great as is but still you get my point. I’m not even necessarily against the rule — it just sucks for the handful of guys that basically trained their whole whole lives to be a professional pitcher and then their role is just eliminated seemingly overnight. Though to be fair… he actually doesn’t have better splits vs lefties that rights despite being used as a LOOGY for much of his career (both RH and LH batters are hitting .270-ish against him) —He does seem capable of multi-inning relief appearances though so who knows maybe he’ll be able to reinvent himself as a multi-inning guy — best of luck to him either way.
His job was taken away by a drug of abuse, not a rule change.
Yeah that may be true… but let’s hope for his sake he got the help he needed and that’s behind him now.
And more to my point… it wasn’t just about Krol… that was more of a general feeling/thought about all LOOGY’s that essentially had their role eliminated overnight. I’m not saying it’s a bad rule… I think it was inevitable. It just sucks for the handful of guys who spend their whole lives working towards pitching in the majors and them had ther role taken out from under them.
If you want to play in the bigs, you’ve got to be able to adapt and reinvent yourself.
That’s not really a fair assessment when it just happened out of no where… and to Krol’s credit he has… he’s become a multi-inning guy since the rule change (at least in the minor leagues) — but thats the equivalent of saying if say back in 2010 the DH was eliminated from the AL and therefore you blamed David Ortiz for not “reinventing himself” because he was a DH. It was literally a position — that without warning was removed from the game seemingly overnight. All LOOGY’s literally went from having a role to NOT in the blink of an eye. It’s not like they could have done anything about it… it was a legitimate role/specialty and then boom… it wasn’t.
Rhame’s back! watch your heads!
Wow Rhame has put up some serious K numbers in the minors. I really never realized that before… seems like he’s got some issues with command though… maybe the Padres think they can make some adjustments though and get him on track. The dude’s obviously got the raw talent… now it’s just a matter of actually putting it to use.
Yeah, so did Preller’s last “great find,” Bryan Mitchell.