The D-Backs announced this afternoon they’ve claimed reliever Jacob Webb off waivers from the Braves. To create space on the 40-man roster, they designated outfielder Stuart Fairchild for assignment.
Atlanta had somewhat surprisingly designated Webb for assignment last week. The 28-year-old has generally been an effective bullpen piece over the past few seasons, tossing 76 2/3 innings of 2.47 ERA ball since debuting in 2019. That included a sterling 1.39 mark in 32 1/3 frames as a rookie, although Webb’s peripherals that season were more ordinary. Unfortunately, Webb spent notable chunks of each of his first couple seasons on the injured list. In 2019, went down in August with a season-ending elbow impingement. The following year, he missed the first month and a half of the shortened schedule because of a shoulder strain.
Webb returned to health last season and worked 34 1/3 frames with a 4.19 ERA. His 21.6% strikeout rate is a few points below the MLB average, but that belies some excellent swing-and-miss numbers on a per-pitch basis. Webb racked up swinging strikes on 15.6% of his offerings last year, one of the top marks around the league.
Arizona will take a low-risk flier to see if he can translate that whiff rate into a few more punchouts and settle into the middle innings. The D-Backs had one of the league’s worst bullpens last season, giving Webb plenty of opportunity to stake a claim to a spot. He has a minor league option year remaining as well, so the Snakes can shuttle him between Arizona and Triple-A Reno for the remainder of the year if he sticks on the 40-man roster.
Fairchild loses his spot on the 40-man roster and will be traded or placed on waivers within the next week. A second-round pick of the Reds in 2017, he was dealt to the D-Backs alongside the since-traded Josh VanMeter at the 2020 deadline for reliever Archie Bradley. Fairchild posted a strong .295/.385/.564 line in 44 games with Reno last year to earn his first MLB call, but he only appeared in 12 contests with Arizona.
Optioned back to Triple-A to open this season, Fairchild has gotten off to a miserable start. He’s hitting .162/.279/.378 in 43 trips to the dish, striking out 15 times. In the wake of that rough start, the D-Backs decided to bump Fairchild off the roster. He still has a pair of options and can cover all three outfield positions, so it’s not out of the question a team that liked the 26-year-old as a prospect takes a shot on him.
Good pickup by Arizona
unfair to Stuart TBH.
Truth be told, this was straight up bad Mgmt by the Braves. Under no circumstances should Webb have been DFA’d and Newcomb still be on the roster at the time. Now we have freaking touki up to replace Newcomb, while the dbacks in a nice little pickup in a kid who’s pretty darn solid. He’ll be a nice 6th inning guy and be good more often than bad. Is Webb some unreal talent, no. But is he better and more consistent than Newcomb and touki, 100%
Webb is a nice no risk option. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he becomes a legitimate bullpen option for them.
I don’t think it’s out of the question that Brent Strom can bring out the best in him. The Astros were always great at fixing up bullpen pieces when he was there.
This should help.
Still 3 holdovers from that disastrous 2021 bullpen that have to go as soon as possible: Matt Peacock, Caleb Smith and Noe Ramirez. Plus, it’s time to let Oliver Perez retire.
Starting pitching has done well this year (with the exceptions of Caleb Smith and Luke Weaver.), so Strum has done some good work thus far.
I’m starting to wonder about the hitting coaches. It’s a lineup-wide slump, only Beer hitting and Varsho beginning to show life again. Maybe a change of coaching approach is needed?
They already did that last year as well but maybe a new coach can do miracles, who knows. But it is more likely that signing guys that can actually hit would really make a difference. Question is if Mike Hazen is actually able to sign those guys.
Caleb Smith has already been optioned (although, last season he performed much better out of the bullpen), Matt Peacock just got called up again (and still is nowhere close to exhausting Rookie eligibility), and Noe Ramirez has actually performed well in his DBacks tenure.
The first two will likely be in MiLB in the later portions of the season, Ramirez is a decent 6th/7th inning guy, and I have no rebuttal for Perez; Oliver is eating up innings that are better used getting younger arms experience.
There has definitely been a slow shift in offensive philosophy to “wait out the pitches you can’t handle to drive up counts and drive your pitch” as opposed to the praying they could get a mistake pitch; but they don’t look patient at the plate, they look passive. Walks are great and all, but what do 3 BB in an inning matter when you can’t get a hit (or even a productive out)?
That’s been the main problem; there hasn’t been a shortage of baserunners, but nobody has been able to drive pitches enough to get them home. A lot of groundballs right at fielders and lazy pop-ups, like they can’t even visualize what the pitch the may receive would look like.
I’m sure there’s been a lot of preparation that everybody has been doing, but the hitters have rarely looked prepared.
And then they put up 11 runs against the Nats and we all look like fools for a day or two.
Fairchild could definitely get claimed by a team.
I still think there must be an issue with Webb’s arm.