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Padres Select Matt Waldron

By Anthony Franco | June 24, 2023 at 4:56pm CDT

TODAY: The Padres have officially announced their selection of Waldron’s contract. To make room for Waldron on the active roster, left-hander Ray Kerr was optioned to Triple-A. Kerr had a 6.00 ERA and 5.77 FIP in six innings of work out of the San Diego bullpen, and now figures to serve as depth with El Paso going forward.

JUNE 23: The Padres will promote knuckleballer Matt Waldron to start tomorrow night’s game against the Nationals, the club informed reporters (including Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune). He’s not on the 40-man roster but San Diego has an opening after designating Nabil Crismatt for assignment on Tuesday. Michael Wacha had been slated to start the game. The Friars are skipping his outing due to some shoulder fatigue, tweets AJ Cassavell of MLB.com.

Waldron, a 26-year-old righty, entered the professional ranks as an 18th-round pick of the Indians back in 2019. Cleveland traded him to San Diego after the 2020 season as the player to be named later in the Mike Clevinger/Josh Naylor, Cal Quantrill blockbuster.

The University of Nebraska product has slowly progressed up the minor league ranks over the two and a half years since then. He reached Triple-A El Paso midway through last season and has spent all of 2023 there. He has a 7.02 ERA over 66 2/3 innings this year, starting 12 of 14 appearances.

That’s obviously not a strong run prevention mark, even in the context of the brutal Pacific Coast League setting for pitchers. Waldron ranks 27th among 38 PCL hurlers (minimum 40 innings) in ERA. He’s seventh among that group in strikeout rate, however, fanning just under a quarter of opponents. He has kept his walks to a manageable 7.8% clip, with the inflated ERA largely attributable to a batting average on balls in play just shy of .400.

It’s unclear if Waldron will get more than one start in his initial MLB look. Even if it’s a one-off appearance for now, it’ll mark both a major personal achievement and a win for fans of the knuckleball.

According to Statcast, there hasn’t been a single knuckleball thrown in the major leagues (outside of a few scattered eephus pitches from position players in mop-up duty) in either of the last two seasons. Mickey Jannis made one relief appearance for the Orioles in 2021; the last knuckleballer to pitch more than twice was Steven Wright back in 2019.

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San Diego Padres Transactions Matt Waldron Michael Wacha Ray Kerr

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View Comments (30)

Comments

  1. DarkSide830

    3 months ago

    Imagine Gary Sanchez trying to catch a knuckleball.

    11
    Reply
    • YankeesBleacherCreature

      3 months ago

      The analytics guys are getting an aneurysm right now on how to quantify knuckeball pitch-framing. “Give it to the intern.”

      8
      Reply
    • CNichols

      3 months ago

      You’re not going to have to imagine it for long, you’ll be able to experience it tomorrow. Their beat reporter said on Twitter it will be Sánchez catching him.

      4
      Reply
    • Curly Was The Smart Stooge

      3 months ago

      Dude has a pulse, what’s the problem?

      4
      Reply
      • DarkSide830

        3 months ago

        Don’t we all?

        Reply
      • Curly Was The Smart Stooge

        3 months ago

        If Sanchez catches, have him face the umpire, he’ll stop more balls with his back versus his mitt

        Reply
  2. Ham Fighter

    3 months ago

    Era of 7 is good enough these days to get called up to MLB… ridiculous

    Reply
    • Angelic Visitations

      3 months ago

      In the PCL, because of the light air, there’s less resistance on the ball and much less friction. A knuckleballer won’t find success there at all because there will be no drop, tail or cut to the ball. But at sea level in San Diego, you’re going to see a more “heavy” ball, and it’ll dance like a typical knuckler.

      18
      Reply
      • BrianStrowman9

        3 months ago

        AA San Antonio isn’t much better. Waldron’s best bet is sticking in the MLB

        1
        Reply
      • BaseballisLife

        3 months ago

        The team ERA is 6.58. The PCL with teams in El Paso, Albuquerque, Salt Lake, Reno, and Las Vegas is a high altitude launching zone.

        The PCL ERA is 6.00. Compare that to 4.27 in MLB.

        4
        Reply
        • mlb1225

          3 months ago

          PCL is insane, the league average triple-slash is .278/.375/.465. Even peak steroid era fell well short of that.

          6
          Reply
  3. CNichols

    3 months ago

    Well a couple of the other SP in AAA El Paso on the 40 man, Avila and Groome, have ERAs of 9.29 and 9.73 respectively so that gives some context as to what their other choices were.

    5
    Reply
  4. Redsoxx_62

    3 months ago

    Hopefully I can watch this game live… I’d love to see a knuckleballer in the majors again

    11
    Reply
    • YankeesBleacherCreature

      3 months ago

      Loved watching Wakefield pitch against the Yankees.

      6
      Reply
  5. Gwynning

    3 months ago

    LFG Waldie! And we all float on!

    7
    Reply
  6. The Saber-toothed Superfife

    3 months ago

    Detroit can solve their management and pitching problems.

    Reply
  7. DrDan75

    3 months ago

    Is Waldron now or has he ever been a shortstop? And has he ever played in the Texas Rangers organization?

    Reply
    • DCartrow

      3 months ago

      No, but he did write poetry at the edge of Waldron’s Pond up in the Northeast.

      I’m very Thoreau with my research.

      11
      Reply
      • closetball

        3 months ago

        First pitch gets hammered off the foul Poe in a Frosty welcome to the bigs.

        4
        Reply
      • sergefunction

        3 months ago

        The sun is but a morning star, or last eve’s knuckler struck afar.

        4
        Reply
        • Brew’88

          3 months ago

          With knucklers, the question is not what you look at, but what you see

          3
          Reply
  8. thefaithfulfriar

    3 months ago

    Gonna be fun to watch tonight. Let Wacha rest. Let’s see if we got anything for giving up Naylor and Quantrill…LFGSD!

    1
    Reply
  9. SanDiegoSuperDissapointingPadres

    3 months ago

    If you’re going to throw out a knuckleballer the Nationals are the team to do it against. It will never get to out of hand and if it starts to unfold, it can just become a bullpen game.

    But on the flip side, he could be the next RA Dickey!

    1
    Reply
  10. Hired Gun 23

    3 months ago

    That knucklehead better knuckle up and get the job done!

    Reply
  11. Termin

    3 months ago

    Don’t know why, but it always makes me happy to hear a knuckleballer is about to pitch.

    2
    Reply
    • YankeesBleacherCreature

      3 months ago

      Kind of a lost art. I’m glad to see stolen bases have an uptick this season.

      Reply
  12. websoulsurfer

    3 months ago

    Just my gut feeling, but I don’t think this is going to go well for Waldron or the Padres. They are going to need another offensive output like last night to win this one.

    Reply
  13. Rsox

    3 months ago

    The Padres announce they have signed Doug Mirabelli. A police escort is waiting at the airport to get him to the ballpark before the first pitch…

    Reply
  14. harryfrazeesucks

    3 months ago

    Watched 3 innings from Waldron….never saw 1 knuckleball….

    Reply
    • TheDayMILBDied

      3 months ago

      He threw 14 of them out of 62 pitches.

      1
      Reply

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