Outrights: Clay, Marrero, Fry

A roundup of some recent outright assignments for players who cleared waivers following a DFA…

• Mets lefty Sam Clay passed through waivers unclaimed and was assigned outright to Syracuse, tweets Michael Mayer of MetsMerized. The ground-ball specialist appeared in just one big league game with the Mets this season and allowed an unearned run on a hit and a walk with two punchouts. Clay carries a 5.90 ERA in 50 1/3 Major League innings but also boasts a mammoth 62.5% ground-ball rate in that time. He also has a career 3.81 ERA with a 24.8% strikeout rate in 59 Triple-A innings, making him a nice depth piece to have on hand in the upper minors, even if he’s yet to find real success in the big leagues just yet.
• Veteran infielder Deven Marrero also cleared outright waivers and was assigned to Triple-A Syracuse by the Mets after being designated last week. The team didn’t make a formal announcement on the matter, but Marrero, who could’ve rejected the assignment in favor of free agency, was back in the Syracuse lineup last night. Marrero, who’ll turn 32 tomorrow, appeared in three games at the big league level and went hitless in four plate appearances, though he did swipe a base. He’s a career .192/.247/.280 hitter in parts of seven big league seasons but is a well-regarded defender capable of handling any of shortstop, second base or third  base. He’s appeared in 33 games with Syracuse and hit .229/.323/.349 in 125 plate appearances.
• Left-hander Paul Fry cleared waivers after being designated for assignment by the Diamondbacks and was assigned to Triple-A Reno, per the team’s transactions log at MLB.com. Fry has previously been outrighted and could rejected the assignment in favor of free agency, but he’d have punted the remainder of this year’s $850K guarantee in doing so, as he doesn’t yet have five years of Major Leaguer service time. The 30-year-old pitched just one MLB frame with the Snakes this season, plus another dozen with the Orioles, with whom he’s spent the prior four years. Fry was a solid lefty in the Baltimore ’pen in 2020 and for much of the 2021 season before a late collapse last year (due primarily to repeat drubbings at the hands of the Rays). Fry hasn’t regained his form in either the big leagues (6.23 ERA in 13 innings) or Triple-A (5.50 ERA, 18 innings).