The Royals announced that right-hander Matt Peacock has been acquired from the Diamondbacks in exchange for cash considerations. To make roster space for Peacock, Kansas City has designated righty Domingo Tapia for assignment.
Arizona designated Peacock for assignment earlier this week, and he’ll now head to the Royals’ Triple-A affiliate after spending his entire pro career in the Diamondbacks organization. A 23rd-round pick in the 2017 draft, Peacock made his Major League debut last season and posted a 4.90 ERA over 86 1/3 innings, starting eight of his 35 appearances. In 2022, Peacock made two appearances out of Arizona’s bullpen before getting DFA’ed.
Peacock is a grounder specialist who regularly topped the 60% groundball-rate threshold during his time in the minors, and he also has respectable walk totals, though he doesn’t record many strikeouts. The D’Backs regularly used Peacock as a starter prior to the canceled 2020 minor league season, and he hasn’t recorded a minor league start since (albeit in limited action at Triple-A), so it will be interesting to see how the Royals will opt to deploy the righty. Conceivably, the Royals might use Peacock in a flexible swingman role depending on their needs, and his grounder-heavy arsenal could be particularly effective on a solid defensive team like K.C.
Tapia’s resume is pretty similar to Peacock, as both are right-handed groundball specialists who pitched in their first big league game in 2020. Tapia took a longer path than Peacock, as Tapia was an international signing for the Mets back in December 2009. After long stints in the New York and Cincinnati farm systems, Tapia finally broke into the Show with the Red Sox in 2020, then posted a 2.67 ERA over 33 2/3 combined innings with the Mariners and Royals in 2021.
Over 718 1/3 career innings in the minors, Tapia has a 4.12 ERA and 17.68% strikeout rate. Tapia has been more or less a full-time reliever since 2018, and his efforts to win a job in the K.C. bullpen this spring were hampered by a lack of control (six walks in 5 1/3 Cactus League innings).
I’m a peacock! You gotta let me fly!
I didn’t know a pea had one.
Are the Royals against guys with a sub 3 ERA? They designate Tapia for a guy with a 5+ ERA. No wonder I can’t watch them.
Needs editing: Who is Davidson? And I think you meant “international” signing.
‘No, no, no, no, yes! (Jim Trott/Trevor Peacock reference)
Tapia is better tbh
Tapia can’t catch a break. Throws 98+, or did last time checked, has as good of command as most other guys who throw that hard.. yet seems teams just let him walk when roster crunch time comes when he gets people out. Is it because he doesn’t put up amazing K numbers, which he never really did?
Who cares if he isn’t some poster child of the nonsense spin rate and is low there? he just flat out gets guys out, which pitchers are supposed to do, while throwing upper 90’s and has a decent slider to boot.
I’m assuming teams are skeeved out by the BB/K ratio.
John – “…. his efforts to win a job in the K.C. bullpen this spring were hampered by a lack of control (six walks in 5 1/3 Cactus League innings).”
The answer is his lack of control. He walked way too many in Pawtucket in 2019, and I was shocked when the RS brought him back for 2020. Tapia is a AAAA who throws hard, but his ceiling is a mop up reliever who is not consistent enough to be trusted with leads…. kind of like Matt Barnes is now….but with a lot less talent or resume of past successes…
This deal makes zero sense for the Royals. Tapia is clearly the better MLB pitcher of the two and he’s only about 2 years older than Peacock, so it doesn’t appear to be an age related issue. Tapia has decent numbers on the season too, so I’d be very surprised if he makes it through waivers, even with his low strike out numbers.
Besides the high ground ball rates, Peacock hasn’t shown much at all that he can be an effective MLB pitcher. His minor league stats were not that impressive either. Unless Tapia is injured or did something in the clubhouse to alienate himself from the team, the decision to DFA Tapia for Peacock makes no sense at all.
Side note, who is this ‘Davidson’ they mention in the article? I assume that was a typo and it should have read ‘Peacock’ instead?
It’s actually a good move, Tapia probably will make it through waivers unless Baltimore, Pittsburgh decide they want a guy who doesn’t get many strikeouts and walks way too many guys when accounting for his poor strikeout rates. At least he gets groundballs.
Did Peacock magically transform into Davidson? Is he a cromulent defender for a pitcher?
I spent the whole post not confusing Matt Peacock and Brad Peacock, yet somehow confused Matt Peacock and Matt Davidson. Fixed!
It’s ok mark!
Doesn’t matter the could have Cy Young, Warren Span, Tom Seaver, and Steve Carlton and Matheny would mess it up. How the guy keeps a job is beyond me.
Warren Spahn, but thanks for the Milwaukee Braves shoutout!
Matheny would misuse Mariano
The Royals have two Peacocks now.
I would imagine that Brad and Matt Peacock must be related….
Royals like their Pete LaCock…sounds
Mets should pick this guy back up
At least make a play for a minor league signing if there’s anything left on the arm. Prolly replace someone else in Jult when they get hurt. Game is often a war of attrition and smart, subtle moves can pay off in the long run.
Tapia has been kinda nasty in the majors. Feel bad for him