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Marlins, Devin Smeltzer Agree To Minor League Contract

By Anthony Franco | January 24, 2023 at 12:51pm CDT

The Marlins are in agreement with left-hander Devin Smeltzer on a minor league deal, reports Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase (Twitter link). The deal, which contains a non-roster invitation to Spring Training, would pay the ISE Baseball client at a $1MM rate for any time spent in the majors.

Smeltzer has pitched in the majors in each of the past four seasons with the Twins. He’s started 19 of 34 career outings, tallying 140 innings of 3.99 ERA ball at the highest level. Roughly half of that experience came last year, when he was tabbed for 12 starts and a trio of relief appearances that totaled 70 1/3 frames. Smeltzer pitched to a solid 3.71 ERA but without many whiffs or ground balls.

The 27-year-old struck out 13.9% of opponents on a modest 7.4% swinging strike rate. The lack of missed bats isn’t all that surprising for a pitcher who averaged 89.5 MPH on his fastball. Smeltzer compensates for his subpar velocity with strong control. He walked only 6.6% of opposing hitters last season and has doled out free passes at just a 6.4% clip for his MLB career. It was a similar story with Triple-A St. Paul, where he posted a 6.9% walk percentage against a better but hardly overwhelming 20.3% strikeout rate.

Smeltzer’s solid run prevention at the MLB level would’ve been hard to replicate. He benefited from a .252 batting average on balls in play while stranding nearly 83% of the baserunners he allowed. ERA estimators like FIP and SIERA both pegged his work more in the 5.00 range than the sub-4.00 territory he actually managed, and the Twins ran him through outright waivers at the end of the season. Upon clearing, he qualified for minor league free agency.

The former fifth-round pick adds an experienced control specialist to the upper levels of the Miami organization. He owns a 4.40 ERA through parts of five minor league campaigns, walking just 5.5% of opponents along the way. He has experience both starting and working multiple innings out of the bullpen and could factor into either role at some point in 2023. Miami has a deep rotation mix even after trading Pablo López last week, so it seems likely Smeltzer will open the season with Triple-A Jacksonville. He’s out of minor league option years, meaning the Marlins would have to keep him in the majors or offer him to other teams via trade or waivers if he earns an MLB call at any point.

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Miami Marlins Transactions Devin Smeltzer

Phillies Sign Ben Bowden, Jeremy Walker, Mark Appel To Minor League Deals
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13 Comments

  1. Vanilla Good

    2 years ago

    26 years old with just above average numbers? This is the best he could get?

    I see that his FIP is pretty high and he doesn’t pitch a lot of innings, but ISE has some poor salespeople.

    6
    Reply
  2. bhd360

    2 years ago

    He needs to fire his agent. Surprised he didn’t land a Major League deal elsewhere.

    4
    Reply
    • jdgoat

      2 years ago

      He had an ERA of 7.56 in fifty minor league innings (not really a small sample) and struck out people at an abysmal rate in the majors. I can’t imagine there’d be many teams blowing up any agents phone to get him on a major league deal.

      3
      Reply
  3. Lucky Strike

    2 years ago

    Twins prospect that they didn’t coach up.

    Reply
  4. In Seager/Hader We Trust > the 70 MM DH Ohtani

    2 years ago

    Cheap

    Reply
  5. getrealgone2

    2 years ago

    Yeah agreed, he needs better representation.

    1
    Reply
  6. Buzz Killington

    2 years ago

    Solid depth.

    1
    Reply
  7. stretch123

    2 years ago

    Really nice depth signing for Miami

    1
    Reply
  8. leftykoufax

    2 years ago

    Nice pickup if he can keep the ball in the park.

    1
    Reply
  9. This one belongs to the Reds

    2 years ago

    Hopefully his new manager won’t nickname him Alka Smeltzer.

    Reply
  10. Jacksson13

    2 years ago

    Almost like part of the return from the Twinkies for Lopez…..

    Reply
  11. MarlinsFanBase

    2 years ago

    Interesting low-risk addition.

    I can’t wait to see what we do about our need for a Closer.

    Reply
  12. MarlinsFanBase

    2 years ago

    Looks like a younger, expected to be better version of Daniel Castano.

    Reply

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