The Diamondbacks announced they’ve claimed reliever Cole Sulser off waivers from the Marlins. Arizona’s 40-man roster tally jumps to 37, while Miami’s drops to 40.
Sulser spent one season in South Florida. The Fish acquired the right-hander alongside hard-throwing Tanner Scott in a package deal with the Orioles going into the 2022 season. Sulser was coming off an excellent 2.70 ERA over 63 1/3 innings in Baltimore, looking like a late-blooming high-leverage bullpen piece. He didn’t replicate that success during his year in Miami, however, scuffling to a 5.29 ERA over 34 frames.
The 32-year-old surrendered six home runs over that stretch, and his strikeout rate dipped from 28.4% with Baltimore to 25.5% this past season. Sulser’s average fastball speed also dropped from 93.3 MPH to 91.9 MPH, and he lost a couple months midseason with a lat strain.
That down year explains why the Marlins were willing to part with Sulser not long after acquiring him, but it’s easy enough to see the appeal for the Diamondbacks in giving him a shot. Even with his diminished velocity, he got swinging strikes on an above-average 13.3% of his pitches this year. Arizona general manager Mike Hazen has spoken about prioritizing swing-and-miss in adding to a bullpen that ranked last in the big leagues with a 19.7% strikeout rate.
Sulser has between three and four years of major league service, so he’ll be eligible for arbitration through the 2025 campaign. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects him to receive a modest $1MM salary if tendered a contract, and he could be a multi-year bullpen piece for the Snakes if he can right the ship.
Nice move by the DBacks. Could be really good for him.
Did you copy and paste this from what some of my fellow Marlins fans said last year?
No I didn’t. Came right from my own thoughts. Maybe we just had similar ideas. You could be sarcastic right here but I’m not.
You must not have watched this guy at all last year. I have never seen a reliever give up so many game winning home runs in my life….and he barely pitched.
I’m only going off stats, which don’t look bad.
The guy had an ERA over 5 and a War of -0.5 He was statistically one of the worst relievers in all of baseball last year. You might be looking at the wrong stats page I hope lol
I look at the big picture. Full career, not one season. If I recall, he was pretty dominant a couple years ago. Worth taking a chance on if it’s at the right value.
Snakes were one of few teams with worse bullpen then Fish.
With this one move, both teams have upgraded their bullpen.
D-Backs getting garbage which is better than feces.
Marlins got addition by subtraction.
Sulser will probably recapture his old velo and be useful this year……
Topps update series must be mad now.
If Tanner Scott could locate his pitches consistently he could be one of the nastiest relievers in baseball.
The O’s obviously didn’t think he could and let him go. I suppose he’ll be an extremely frustrating lefty that hangs around the big leagues for a long time.
Hey Sulser forgot to take Tanner Scott with him.
Scott has such filthy stuff I fear he gets a bit longer to sort himself out
Yeah, I have that fear as well. It’s right there after the fear that Kim Ng may still think she has a legit Clsoer in the organization, but right before my fear that the Marlins will once again keep Garrett Cooper to wait for him to be healthy this year.
I think this brings the roster to 40. If they want to take part in the Major League phase of the Rule 5 draft then there’s one more to go. This leaves 4 top 30 prospects exposed to the Rule 5, so there might be some swapping around.