The Guardians announced that they have signed a couple of Calebs to minor league deals. Left-hander Caleb Baragar and right-hander Caleb Simpson will join the organization and receive invitations to major league Spring Training.
Baragar, 29 in April, has seen some major league time with the Giants, making 49 appearances for them over the 2020 and 2021 seasons. In that time, he posted a 2.78 ERA despite middling rate states. His 18.8% strikeout rate, 9.1% walk rate and 21.7% ground ball rate are all worse than league average.
Things didn’t go as smoothly in the minors, as he posted an 8.46 ERA in 22 1/3 Triple-A innings in 2021, surely pushed northwards by a huge 17.6% walk rate. The Giants designated him for assignment in March of 2022 and he landed with the Diamondbacks on a waiver claim, who subsequently outrighted him in April. He posted a 5.51 ERA for the Triple-A Reno Aces in 2022, who play in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. Baragar struck out a healthy 23.8% of batters faced but still gave free passes at a high rate of 13.8%.
Simpson, 31, has yet to crack the major leagues, though he was included in Boston’s 60-man player pool during the 2020 season. He’s generally posted solid numbers up the minor league ladder but has struggled at Triple-A so far. In 2022, he posted a 2.92 ERA at Double-A but then a 9.11 ERA at the level above. His rate stats all took a hit as well, as he struck out 27.5% of Double-A hitters but just 21.3% in Triple-A. His walk rate went from 9.8% to 13.2% and his ground ball rate from 51.7% to 42.5%.
For the Guardians, there’s little harm in bringing in the two Calebs for some extra non-roster depth. Both players still have options and limited service time, meaning they could be cheap and versatile arms for the club if they show enough to crack the roster.
And Caleb Carr will write a book on team history…
Complementary Calebs!
The Guardians beat out the Mets for both Caleb’s services as the Guardians, like the Mets, were in it to the end for Carlos Correa. The Guardians took advantage of the Mets distraction to come in and scoop up both Calebs in a franchise defining couple of signings.
This joke should be finally nearing its end …. Luckily for all of us.
No joke
Only a member of the actual Cleveland front office can report ongoing daily news on the Guardians
Spy v. spy.
Coupla Calebs
They should check to see is Caleb Smith is available.
Does this qualify as a Barage of Calebs?
Caleb Williams oops wrong sport
Beware, for they are the Cleveland Calebs…
The Caleb boys get to rub their sticks together in Cleveland
Despite signing these two, the Guardians were also runners up in the bidding war.
lmao…
There’s a pun in here somewhere.
Get me Caleb on the phone!
Which one?
All of them.
Today shall henceforth be known as “Caleb Day”
Caleb and Kyle, soft names make soft people, whatever happened to names like “Eddie” lol
Also working on contracts with:
Homer Simpson
Bart Simpson
AND
Caleb Caleb
Caleb Ferguson and others for Bieber incoming.
Caleb is a Hebrew masculine given name meaning faithful. It can also mean “whole hearted” or “loyalty“. So I guess the Guardians have that going for them. Good thing their first name isn’t Rah. That means “bad” in Hebrew.
To be fair most names tend to mean variations of good, loyal, strong, kind, etc.
It’s a pretty mean set of parents who name their kid something that means “pile of dung”.
Whyhazee
Are you an anti-Semite? Another poster indicated that it is Hebrew name. If not, maybe you should revise your post.
Whyhazee
Or alternatively, did you mean that most kids – like the parents of these kids – would pick names with positive connotations?
Hoping that you meant this latter interpretation.
Guardians of the Calebs
And all the Yankees got was Aaron Judge…
And watch, next year’s backup catcher will be Caleb Joseph.
I would have put the odds of the same team signing two players named Caleb on the same day as totally impossible. Like this can only happen when the entire space time continuum is about to collapse.
Like clockwork, the Guardians usually seem to find one minor league free agent every year that ends up becoming a key part of their bullpen. Maybe one of the Calebs ends up being that guy.
Other than 2020, this has seriously been the case every year since 2014.
2014: Scott Atchison
2015: Jeff Manship
2016: Dan Otero
2017: Tyler Olson
2018: Oliver Perez
2019: Tyler Clippard
2021: Blake Parker
2022: Enyel de Los Santos
They also signed Caleb Caleb.