Righty reliever Keury Mella is returning to the Diamondbacks’ 40-man roster, according to The Athletic’s Zach Buchanan. The club transferred Seth Frankoff to the 60-day IL to clear a 40-man spot, while Taylor Clarke hit the 10-day IL to create an active roster opening. Incredibly, the D’Backs are vying for their first road win since April 25th tonight in San Francisco.
Mella, 27, has logged 27 career innings for the Reds and Diamondbacks. In his 11 appearances at Triple-A Reno this year, he punched out 24.4% of batters and walked 9.0%. Mella averaged 95.2 miles per hour last year in the bigs, a bit above the average ’21 reliever figure of 93.8. Two years ago as a Reds farmhand, Mella was considered to be a 45-grade prospect by Baseball America. The Reds had acquired Mella and Adam Duvall from the Giants in the 2015 trade deadline trade of Mike Leake. At the time, Mella was thought to have a plus fastball without a “true offspeed weapon.” Mella was deemed expendable back in February, as Arizona designated him for assignment and he passed through waivers unclaimed.
As you might expect from the worst team in baseball, the Diamondbacks’ bullpen has been pretty bad, with a 4.64 ERA. But still better than three other NL teams! Mella joins a D’Backs bullpen consisting of Stefan Crichton, Joakim Soria, Kevin Ginkel, Ryan Buchter, Humberto Castellanos, Joe Mantiply, Riley Smith, and possibly Corbin Martin at present. Clarke joins relievers J.B. Bukauskas, Tyler Clippard, Chris Devenski on the IL, with Devenski done for the season due to Tommy John surgery.
Go D-Backwards!