The Diamondbacks have agreed to a minor league contract with right-hander Jandel Gustave, tweets Robert Murray of FanSided. He’ll be invited to big league camp this spring.
The 30-year-old Gustave has spent the past two seasons with the Brewers, turning in solid bottom-line results despite some shakier secondary marks. Gustave carries a 3.69 ERA in 46 1/3 innings over 41 games with Milwaukee dating back to 2021, and he’s averaged a hearty 96.7 mph on his heater during that time. Fielding-independent marks are a bit more skeptical of his efforts, albeit not overwhelmingly so (4.52 FIP, 3.94 SIERA).
Despite his strong velocity, Gustave owns a sub-par 20.1% strikeout rate since 2021. His 8% walk rate during that time is a bit better than average. It’s worth noting that he did up his strikeout rate in 2022 (22.5%), but that was accompanied by an uptick in walks as well (9.2%). Gustave wasn’t particularly homer-prone with the Brewers (1.17 HR/9), and his overall 48.2% ground-ball rate (50% in ’22) is also comfortably ahead of the 42.9% league average.
Injuries played a part in Gustave’s departure from the Brewers. A strained right hamstring cost him more than a month in the first half of the 2022 season, and he was placed on the injured list on Aug. 2 with a forearm injury that wound up ending his season. Gustave never wound up requiring surgery, but his final pitch of the 2022 season nonetheless came on July 31. The Brewers non-tendered him back in November despite the fact that he had two years of club control remaining and a projected salary of just $900K (via MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz).
Assuming he’s healthy, Gustave figures to have a decent chance to crack the D-backs’ bullpen at some point, whether it be on Opening Day or early in the season. Arizona has a generally unsettled mix of relievers, with a few exceptions. Lefty Joe Mantiply had a breakout showing in 2022, and the Snakes will hope for better results from veteran Mark Melancon in the second season of a two-year deal. Veteran Miguel Castro was signed a to a one-year deal earlier in the winter, and 28-year-old righty Kevin Ginkel (29 in March) impressed in 29 1/3 innings down the stretch after posting rough results in 2020-21. The Diamondbacks also once again tapped into the NPB/KBO market by signing former Marlins righty Scott McGough to a two-year contract on the heels of a terrific four-year run in Japan.
Beyond those names on the 40-man roster, Gustave will join Jeurys Familia as a non-roster invitee of particular note this spring. Other minor league signees with varying levels of MLB experience in the bullpen include Austin Adams, Austin Brice, Jesse Biddle, Sam Clay, Ryan Hendrix, Zach McAllister and Eric Yardley.
I have no idea why this guy wasn’t a star. His stuff looks so unhittable to me from a tv screen. But his results don’t match his stuff. It’s crazy.
It was nasty stuff, but he could never stay healthy with the Crew. He always got rocked right after a stint on the IL and it hurt his confidence going forward.
I wish him all the best and think he can achieve it. But we were expecting a floor of 50 innings per year and for him to be the 7th inning guy who would maybe become the set up guy and pitch 70 innings a year after Hader was traded.
Instead we got 46 innings over 2 full seasons.
It’s lightning in a bottle if they can figure out how to keep him on the field, but he strikes me as the kind of guy who won’t take advice and doesn’t know how to eat properly and take care of himself (because no one is better at taking raw talent and developing it at this position than the Brewers). .
Strom might be able to get through to him. I like the approach the Dbacks have been taking with bullpen guys: Hard throwers, with talent, and a high grounder rate, but may have control issues. When you have a pitching coach with the pedigree of Strom you can do that.
The Dbacks bullpen can only improve. It was that bad.
But with young players like Carroll, Thomas, Lawlar, McCarthy, Moreno and Druw Jones, this team is on the rise.
If they’re even 20th in the league that’s still a massive improvement lol.
Fortunately they look like they have enough options (if not a slam dunk Closer), and have some space for the most successful NRI (or possibly two if Melancon/Martin are that bad and nobody else distinguishes themselves) to make the Active Roster out of Spring an interesting Bullpen mix.
Names like Beer, Frias, and Martin are likely to be the next 40-man casualties if an NRI is to be added (especially if Martin struggles in Spring), as the guys coming off the 40 in the next two seasons are: Ahmed, Bumgarner, Castro, Davies, Gurriel, C. Kelly, Melancon, and Walker.
They’ll have to clear a spot when Robinson comes off the Restricted List, and: Cecconi, De Los Santos, Jarvis, Pfaadt, and Walston are all R5 eligible after this season (with a decent chance to see Lawlar in MLB toward the end of the year).
The 40-Man Roster is getting mighty crowded, mostly with high-floor skills and/or reasonable upside; I’m looking forward to Spring Training.
Don’t sleep on the DBacks
I liked him on the Giants, would have been great to add more to bullpen other than rodgers
Bullpens are so volatile from year to year. I was a lot more optimistic about last year’s bullpen going into the season than I am this year. Particularly at the Closer position. Last year, the Dbacks had the returning league leader in saves, Melancon with almost 40, plus if he faltered Ian Kennedy was 11th in the league in ‘21 with 25 saves. That redundancy seemed to ensure the Dbacks would get good results from the Closer spot. I was dismayed that they both totally bombed.
This year, I have very little confidence in the Closer spot. In fact, I fear it will drag down an otherwise very good team and permanently damage the psyche of some of the many young, budding stars. I hope I’m totally wrong, totally over exaggerating. But I’m afraid my fearful outlook will be closer to what really happens than my optimism about this exciting young team.
Can someone talk me down off the ledge?
Other than Mike Hazen, only one person has your level of D-backs insight and knowledge to talk you off the ledge… highheat.
You’re too kind lol
Melancon was horrible, by the end Kennedy was worse. Mantiply will be like the second half not the first. The bullpen will still be bottom ten but it will do nothing to hold back the young stars. Team is going to be great in 2025.
Hazen has signed some power arms for the BP, as advertised. Fingers crossed that a couple of them can stay healthy and have bounce-back seasons. RPs are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.
Have you looked at the Opening Day bullpen list from last season recently?
Castellanos, Kennedy, Mantiply, Martin, Melancon, Perez, Poppen, Ramirez, Weaver, and Wendelken (that’s with an expanded roster from the Lock Out, and that’s: recently transitioned Weaver, pre-All Star Joe Mantiply, multiple waiver claims, and the husk of Oliver Perez). Melancon was also projected for a heavy regression towards his FIP and Kennedy relied heavily on his 4S (not exactly the most sustainable approach when throwing ~94 mph an RHP). The ’22 group was littered with liabilities at the outset, and the depth beneath them was no better (thus requiring more options considered in efforts to fill the holes).
Castro, Ginkel, Mantiply, Martin, McGough, Melancon, Nelson, and Sulser has much better swing-and-miss stuff than that entire group with obvious exception for Martin/Melancon, who are on their last chance anyway (with the ’22 group having two more players representing; the next two up this season also have better swing-and-miss, with numerous others lurking just off the 40-man at AAA). There’s also Strom being in place longer, and actually having pitchers with legitimate stuff to try to optimize. There is no clear CP, but there are also SU profiles being pushed down to MR and some reason to believe at least one will distinguish themselves from the pack. League average would be a major improvement, and there’s enough there to see that being a realistic possibility.
We have: Ahmed, Gurriel Jr, Kelly, Longoria, Marte, and Walker as veterans likely to see a heavy amount of PAs, and multiple guys that have been around for at least a couple years. I think they’ll manage the rookie workload fine, especially since Pavin’s time is running out to work things out at the MLB level and Thomas could more than likely use some time in MiLB to work on his approach/mechanics (and the acquired two decent RHH OF to avoid giving Carroll too many PAs against LHP; they have to figure it out at some point).
Almost every single move this offseason was to stabilize the roster to avoid situations like early last season, when neither Ahmed nor Rojas left Spring Training healthy so they had to carry Perdomo/Alcántara (and they didn’t have a single MLB-ready RHH OF in place).
Even the #5 spot in the rotation last season was Caleb Smith, and when he got demoted to the bullpen the #6 guy onward didn’t do much better (and Davies getting injured certainly didn’t help); this season the #5-8 guys are fighting it out for the last spot. We’re very likely to be comfortable with the performance we receive from #6-8 spots this season (unless one is Martin).
highheat and AngelsNLW
Thanks! I needed that. I’m calmer now.