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Diamondbacks Sign Ryan Thompson To Minor League Deal

By Steve Adams | August 21, 2023 at 10:37am CDT

The Diamondbacks have agreed to a minor league contract with right-hander Ryan Thompson, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. Thompson was released by the Rays last week following a somewhat surprising DFA. He’s been assigned to Triple-A Reno. A source tells MLBTR that there’s an Aug. 28 opt-out on the deal if Thompson isn’t on the Diamondbacks’ active roster by that point.

The 31-year-old Thompson posted an unsightly 6.11 ERA this season but did so in a small sample of just 17 2/3 innings. He’s notched a 3.26 ERA in a comparable slate of Triple-A innings this year, punching out 30.4% of his minor league opponents against a 13.9% walk rate that could obviously stand to come down a ways. Thompson had been on the injured list with a minor elbow issue but received a clean MRI prior to his DFA. He’s headed directly to the active roster in Reno.

While this year clearly hasn’t been Thompson’s best, he’s been a strong contributor in Tampa Bay in recent seasons — particularly in 2021-22. Over those two years, the right-hander worked to a combined 3.17 ERA with a 24.1% strikeout rate, 6.3% walk rate, 50% ground-ball rate and 0.82 homers per nine innings pitched. Opponents averaged a paltry 87.1 mph off the bat against Thompson in that time — about two miles per hour south of the league average — in part because he was particularly adept at enticing hitters to chase pitches off the plate. From 2021-22, Thompson’s 36.5% chase rate ranked 28th among the 200 big league relievers who pitched at least 70 innings.

Thompson isn’t a flamethrower, averaging just shy of 92 mph on his fastball, and doesn’t miss bats at a prolific rate. But, he’s regularly limited hard contact at a high level, and outside of the current season, he’s posted strong walk rates as well. He was also playing the current season on a $1MM salary and has multiple minor league option years remaining, which made his release at least somewhat unexpected.

The D-backs will use the remainder of the season to take a look at Thompson. If he’s called to the big leagues and remains on the 40-man roster at the end of the year, Arizona will be able to control him for as many as three additional years via arbitration. If he’s not called to the Majors in the next week, the opt-out date provides Thompson and his reps at Northwest Sports Management Group to return to the market and look to latch on with another club prior to the Sept. 1 deadline for postseason eligibility.

The Arizona bullpen ought to present an opportunity for Thompson if he looks sharp in a potentially brief stay with Reno. The D-backs fortified the relief corps by picking up Paul Sewald in a deadline deal with the Mariners, and they’ve gotten strong work from lefty Kyle Nelson and righties Kevin Ginkel and Jose Ruiz this season. However, Scott McGough has stumbled over the past five weeks after an excellent start to his Diamondbacks tenure, and fellow offseason pickup Miguel Castro has faded after his own hot start. Arizona has been cycling relievers through the final couple spots of the bullpen in recent weeks, which could open the door for Thompson to get the call in hopes he can solidify a spot.

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Arizona Diamondbacks Transactions Ryan Thompson

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View Comments (10)

Comments

  1. sufferforsnakes

    1 month ago

    Can’t hurt to try. Maybe he won’t hand everything over the middle of the plate like Castro?

    2
    Reply
    • mlb fan

      1 month ago

      The Dbacks bullpen could certainly use a shot in the arm, but it was good to see them get back on the winning track and take 3 out of 4 vs the Pads recently. Better times are coming in Arizona.

      2
      Reply
    • stusternysburny

      1 month ago

      Rays fan, good riddance. He’ll probably be too busy on twitter posting about Mark 6:9 instead of worrying about his trash pitch sequencing.

      Reply
      • sufferforsnakes

        1 month ago

        You sure you have the right scripture?

        2
        Reply
        • stusternysburny

          1 month ago

          His FIP is almost half of Wanders girlfriends age, have fun!

          Reply
        • sufferforsnakes

          1 month ago

          That’s not an answer to my question.

          1
          Reply
  2. Dbacks44

    1 month ago

    Definitely a good move. Get out of that beast division. Dbacks do well with these moves.

    Reply
  3. rwautlet

    1 month ago

    For all the good work that Jose Ruiz provided he was still DFA’d and no longer on the roster.

    1
    Reply
  4. SupremeZeus

    1 month ago

    Worth a flyer. Hazen churns that pen year to rear. Ken Kendrick is 80 in 12 days.

    Reply
  5. But It Do

    1 month ago

    If you insist on having “but” at the start of a sentence, it should not have a comma after it. How does this Adams guy have a job?

    Reply

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