Rays right-hander Zack Burdi has cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A Durham, per a team announcement. Burdi had been designated for assignment earlier this week in order to open up a 40-man roster spot for right-hander Chase Anderson.
A first round pick by the White Sox in the 2016 draft, the 28-year-old Burdi has long had a premium fastball in terms of both velocity and spin rate, but has struggled to translate it into success at the big league level due to control issues. While his 9.3% walk rate in 20 1/3 career innings in the majors has been passable, Burdi’s posted a walk rate of nearly 15% in 150 innings at the minor league level. Further, even though his walks have been under control in his small sample at the major league level, his results have still been less than spectacular, with a career 6.64 ERA in the majors.
Still, an optionable right-hander with stuff as tantalizing as Burdi is sure to pique the interest of teams, making it something of a surprise that Burdi passed through waivers successfully. Burdi has less than three years of MLB service time and has not been outrighted before in his career, meaning he does not have the right to reject his outright assignment. That leaves him poised to be upper-level relief depth for the Rays in the minor leagues going forward this season alongside the likes of Trevor Kelley and Calvin Faucher.
Source of this breaking story:
A little BURDI told them…..
I don’t get it
I get it
I don’t want to get it
I’m on antibiotics so I won’t get it…
It was a tweet.
Sylvester heard that tweet, beware Burdi
Yankees should have claimed him. Maybe he could tell them why the Rays are their daddy.
All the pitching BURDI’S rostered on MLB,
Hear Zach & Nick’s careers go THUD, THUD, THUD….
Man, Tampa is living rent free in all the other club’s heads. If Burdi played for the White Sox or Cardinals, some team would have claimed him. Since he pitches for Tampa, the other teams must think that Tampa knows more about this kid as to why he can’t make it in the majors so they all just let him cruise through waivers unclaimed. Burdi could have helped a lot of the floundering bullpens out there but Tampa’s Jedi mind tricks seemed to fool them all.
Except, Burdi just isn’t good.