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.
Imagine Gary Sanchez trying to catch a knuckleball.
The analytics guys are getting an aneurysm right now on how to quantify knuckeball pitch-framing. “Give it to the intern.”
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.
Dude has a pulse, what’s the problem?
Don’t we all?
If Sanchez catches, have him face the umpire, he’ll stop more balls with his back versus his mitt
Era of 7 is good enough these days to get called up to MLB… ridiculous
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.
AA San Antonio isn’t much better. Waldron’s best bet is sticking in the MLB
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.
PCL is insane, the league average triple-slash is .278/.375/.465. Even peak steroid era fell well short of that.
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.
Hopefully I can watch this game live… I’d love to see a knuckleballer in the majors again
Loved watching Wakefield pitch against the Yankees.
LFG Waldie! And we all float on!
Detroit can solve their management and pitching problems.
Is Waldron now or has he ever been a shortstop? And has he ever played in the Texas Rangers organization?
No, but he did write poetry at the edge of Waldron’s Pond up in the Northeast.
I’m very Thoreau with my research.
First pitch gets hammered off the foul Poe in a Frosty welcome to the bigs.
The sun is but a morning star, or last eve’s knuckler struck afar.
With knucklers, the question is not what you look at, but what you see
Gonna be fun to watch tonight. Let Wacha rest. Let’s see if we got anything for giving up Naylor and Quantrill…LFGSD!
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!
That knucklehead better knuckle up and get the job done!
Don’t know why, but it always makes me happy to hear a knuckleballer is about to pitch.
Kind of a lost art. I’m glad to see stolen bases have an uptick this season.
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.
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…
Watched 3 innings from Waldron….never saw 1 knuckleball….
He threw 14 of them out of 62 pitches.