The Brewers have announced that left-hander Angel Perdomo has been claimed off waivers by the Rays. The Rays then announced the claim, with Perdomo being sent to Triple-A Durham, along with designating righty Cooper Criswell as the corresponding move.
Perdomo, 28, spent years in the Blue Jays system as a starter but maxed out at High-A in 2018. After reaching free agency, he latched on with the Brewers on a minor league deal, who have used him exclusively as a reliever since then, apart from a one-inning “opener” start in Triple-A last year. Perdomo had a decent first year in the Brewers organization in 2019, throwing 69 1/3 innings across Double-A and Triple-A. In that time, he had a 4.28 ERA, along with an excellent 35% strikeout rate but concerning 15% walk rate.
Since then, he’s been slowed down by both by injuries and the pandemic. In 2020, the minor league seasons were wiped out, though Perdomo was able to make his MLB debut, throwing 2 2/3 innings for the Brew Crew. Last year, he was limited to 31 total innings between Triple-A and the big league club, while throwing only 4 1/3 minor league frames here in 2022. That means he has just 38 innings thrown since the end of the 2019 season.
When healthy, Perdomo cooks with a high-strikeout and high-walk recipe. Since joining the Brewers, the only stop wherein he had a strikeout rate lower than 35% was the 26.3% rate in his brief 2020 showing in the big leagues. (For reference, this year’s average for MLB relievers is 23.5%.) However, that comes with healthy doses of free passes, as evidenced by his 23.5% career rate in the bigs, more than double this year’s 9.2% rate for MLB relievers. Perdomo is in his last option year, meaning the Rays can give him the rest of the season to try and get healthy and iron out those control issues, though he will need occupy an active roster spot next year or else be designated for assignment.
As for Criswell, 25, this concludes a very short stint on the Rays roster, as he was claimed from the Angels just three days ago. He was assigned to Triple-A Durham but didn’t make an appearance before today’s transaction. The righty made a very brief MLB debut last year, logging 1 1/3 innings for the Angels. The rest of the year was spent in Triple-A, where he threw 47 innings with a 6.51 ERA, 20.4% strikeout rate, 5.7% walk rate and 41.8% ground ball rate. He landed on the 60-day IL at the start of this year and recently began a rehab assignment, throwing 18 innings in the minors before the Rays nabbed him on waivers. They will now have a week to trade him, pass him through waivers or release him.
Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times announced the Criswell DFA and Perdomo’s option to Durham before the official announcement from the Rays.
Perdon, Crisp!!!
Maybe the Brewers will be making a move. He was on the 40man.
Probably adding another Chichi type stop-gap borderline tavern league softball pitcher just so they can once again not bring up Lindblom.
BING BING BING!
Some team will turn to Criswell as Plan Nine.
MLB really needs to make a rule that if you claim someone onto your 40 man roster, barring injury, they should remain on the 40 man roster for at least 30 days or be returned to the original team. This claiming and then DFAing again in hopes of outrighting him to your minors is just ridiculous. And it doesn’t help the player AT ALL. It just jerks them around needlessly.
Like all smart GMs/President of Ops (choose any sport), they will find loopholes to the current rules. Once a rule takes place, they will circumvent it. #donthate,justappreciate
Yes and as soon as loopholes to the rules are exposed, they should be closed by the sport’s governing body. Or else the rules don’t really matter at all.
I don’t appreciate people figuring out ways around the rules. I appreciate people succeeding while following the same rules as everyone else.
You must really hate doing your taxes every year while people like me take advantage of every “loophole” available.
To me, it’s the smaller deals that make the difference, not the $.5 billion throw aways.
Maybe that’s why TB thrives on a small budget?
I don’t hate paying my fair share. If everyone did the same, it wouldn’t be as bad for anyone.
Good luck to you. Hope you can afford the penalties when you get caught.
Ditto!
A sad common practice!
Wouldn’t mind seeing Criswell picked up by Philly as SP depth.
Predicting a good future for him, then?