The Dodgers have selected right-hander Yency Almonte onto the major league roster and optioned Ryan Pepiot to Triple-A Oklahoma City, reports J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group. Pepiot had been selected himself only Tuesday in order to start yesterday’s game against the Pirates.
Almonte, who made 114 appearances for the Rockies between 2018 and 2021, was off to a strong start in the Pacific Coast League, covering 15 1/3 innings striking out 42.4% of batters faced and issuing only a single walk. But while he was effective in 2018 and 2020, Almonte’s big-league numbers aren’t nearly as rosy. In 124 career innings in the bigs, the righty owns a 5.30 ERA (4.83 FIP) with strikeout and walk rates of 20.7% and 9.7%, respectively. As with any former Rockie, though, Almonte’s overall numbers don’t tell the whole story; while his career ERA of 6.46 in 71 home innings is ghastly even by Coors Field standards, his 3.74 mark in 53 innings at sea level is far more palatable.
Pepiot’s Wednesday debut was something of a mixed bag. While he allowed no runs in his three innings of work, he also walked a bit of a tightrope, issuing five walks and one hit) didn’t give manager Dave Roberts much length — perhaps precipitating the call for an additional arm. While being optioned would ordinarily require a player to remain in the minors for ten days before being recalled, though, his stay could be much shorter. As Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic notes, Pepiot would be eligible to serve as the 27th man for Tuesday’s doubleheader against the Diamondbacks. With no timetable set for the return of Andrew Heaney from shoulder problems, the Butler product’s trip to Oklahoma City could well be little more than a procedural move as the Dodgers attempt to navigate an innings crunch.
If a guy has a career 7.00 ERA as a pitcher for the Rockies with decent strike out numbers and walk numbers, any team should sign that guy cause he’s a good pitcher!
Coors is cool (pun intended) but eventually they’re gonna have to play in a dorm.
Not only are Almonte’s K/BB numbers wildly good in 2022, he’s added 2 mph to his fastball and averaging 5” additional break on his slider.
A bit of the latter could be partially due to getting out of that mile high air, but it would seem the Dodgers did good work on Almonte.
White musta had a nasty case of the Covid
Fun fact. Once traded for Tommy Kahnle. Mile high in BR photo.
Ryan Pepiot is a future star in the making, I watched him throw a “no hitter” in Tulsa ( he was pulled with 2 outs to go) and struck out Julio Rodriguez twice.
I wish my Rays had this guy.
Get your popcorn ready, once he fixes his command issues, look out!
Although his SO:BB is what you want to see from a pitching prospect, he’s prone to give up HRs and distorts his numbers.
remember as we learned from Vinny, pitchers who throw strikes can be HR prone some seasons then not other seasons. This kid is learning so lets hope he gets the jitters out next time they call on him.
Los Karens making lots of moves these days.