TODAY: The Marlins officially announced that Gutierrez’s contract has been selected, and that Cronin has been optioned to Triple-A.
MARCH 30: The Marlins will select the contract of right-hander Vladimir Gutierrez prior to Sunday’s game against the Pirates, reports Francys Romero. Miami has an open spot on the 40-man roster, so only a 26-man roster move will be necessary. Daniel Alvarez Montes of El Extra Base reports that the Fish will likely option righty Declan Cronin to Triple-A Jacksonville in Gutierrez’s place, noting that Cronin was packing up his locker following today’s game.
Now 28 years old, Gutierrez was a high-profile prospect back in 2016 after defecting from his native Cuba. The Reds signed him to a $4.75MM bonus and paid a 100% tax on that bonus under the old soft-capped international amateur free agency system.
That $9.5MM investment didn’t pan out as hoped. Gutierrez made it to the big leagues in 2021-22, pitching 150 2/3 innings with a 5.44 ERA, 17.3% strikeout rate and 10.4% walk rate. His heater sat 93.3 mph during that two-year stint, and he paired it with a slider, curveball and changeup. All of Gutierrez’s second pitches were touted as potential plus offerings on various scouting reports (FanGraphs, Baseball America, MLB.com), but he’s yet to find consistency with any of them. His curveball and changeup, in particular, have been hit hard by big league opponents.
Gutierrez underwent Tommy John surgery in the summer of 2022, all but ending his time on the mound with the Reds organization. He returned to throw 6 1/3 minor league frames late in the 2023 season and became a minor league free agent in the offseason.
Gutierrez drew a fair bit of interest on minor league deals as he showcased for MLB clubs to demonstrate his health post-surgery. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given Miami’s proximity to Cuba, he ultimately chose to sign with the Fish back in February. He had a decent showing in spring training, holding opponents to four runs on a dozen hits and four walks with nine punchouts in 10 innings of work.
The Marlins and Pirates went to 12 innings in their season opener, with the Marlins’ bullpen accounting for seven of those frames. AJ Puk last just two innings on Friday, leaving Miami relievers to pick up another seven innings of work. Ryan Weathers went four frames today, giving the relief corps another five innings to pick up. Given that huge slate of innings for Miami relievers, it’s only natural that they’re bringing up a fresh arm — particularly one that can provide some length, if needed.
Cronin’s demotion to Jacksonville is a tough pill for him to swallow. The journeyman righty made his first Opening Day roster this season and has pitched well, firing four innings (including the final three in that 12-inning contest) without allowing an earned run. But between that three-inning debut and another 22 pitches in today’s inning of work, he’d surely have been unavailable tomorrow, making him the most logical candidate to be sent down. He’ll have to be in Jacksonville for 10 days unless he’s recalled as an injury replacement. But considering the fact that he made the Opening Day roster and has thus far pitched well, Cronin stands a good chance of returning to the big leagues before too long.
Pirates are fixin’ to make some noise this year.
Sure hope so! Just don’t beat my Pads in the NLCS 😉
@Tabata’s Adopted Son
My prediction of a Mariners-Pirates fall classic is looking pretty good.
LOL
It will be interesting to see if Gutierrez has recovered well from the injuries. He looked like he might have something for a while there before that all started.
Why did they have Cronin open the season in their bullpen just to send him down and add Gutierrez when they literally could have just added him and left Cronin down. Hope Cronin gets called back up that has to suck for him and he’s pitched pretty decently and could have continued since he was already hot, now you throw Gutierrez in there and if his time in the majors is any lesson he will probably be trash.
Because teams these days don’t care about having the best players possible on their roster. I’m not saying Cronin is particularly good, but teams would rather have a bad pitcher with a fresh arm for 1 game than a better pitcher who needs a day off. It’s similar to the situation where teams option a good pitcher to the minors because he still has an option left rather them DFA a bad pitcher and potentially lose him to another organization. It’s something that really doesn’t sit right with me but doesn’t seem to have a fix that isn’t subjective.
I agree. Most teams carry what, about 8 relievers? Something like that? A pitcher needing a day off shouldn’t be a bad thing because most games they won’t use all 8 anyway. But sending Cronin down while he’s hot and pitching decent can mess him up and he will end up getting called back up just to be shelled. It’s one thing for a pitcher to get a break while on the team, but it isn’t really a break when you are having to pack up your things, travel to a new city, work out with the minors team, sit or pitch with them a few days, then repeat the cycle by getting called back up. There is no stability in that and it can really mess some guys up, especially if they were playing pretty good/great before the demotion.
The problem is that multiple pitchers are unavailable because the starters didn’t do their part, and now they are at the back of the rotation where they didn’t expect innings to begin with. If only one reliever was taxed and 7 were still available, this wouldn’t be needed.
The Marlins’ pen have been overworked these first three games because their starters can’t make it out of the 4th inning but Cronin was sent down because he was probably unavailable for today’s game and they need a fresh arm. Most likely Cronin is still in Miami and was sent to Jacksonville only on paper and will be “ brought back up” tomorrow
@TheMan- pitchers must stay in MiLB 15 days after being Optioned, barring a MLB injury that necessitates their call-up being sooner. Just FYI; you can’t shuttle players back and forth “daily”
Be that as it may, he’ll still return to the majors at some point
Gwynning, they must remain down in the minors for 10 days after being optioned, not 15, sir.
Position players are 10 days, Drew. Pitchers 15.
Gwynning, you’re correct. I was going off the info in the last paragraph of Steve Adams’ story where he mentions Cronin must stay in Jacksonville for at least 10 days. Unless there is an injury in Miami in which case the time frame can be negated. But 15 days for normal wait time for pitchers, as you state, is correct, per option rules. Thanks for the correction.
My own “quick reminder”- Option times are just like the “new” IL durations. 10 days & 15, respectively. Cheers!
I agree. I get they want some fresh arms but he pitched 3 scorless innings and gets sent down for a guy who’s been bad his whole career? Oh well, as a Pirates fan, I appreciate the poor pitching staff they’re facing. Puk also has no business being a starting pitcher. That was hard to watch. Pirates have Bailey Falter in the rotation after being average at best and awful in spring training. I am SO happy they kept Jared Jones up.
Not trying to sound like a weirdo or anything but I am a twin. My name is Jordan Jones and my twin brother is Jared Jones. He passed away on our birthday December 6th. It’s been pretty rough but then I see this kid I personally haven’t heard of, a pitcher for the pirates named Jared Jones. I instantly grabbed onto that, and seeing as he made the opening day roster I hope he absolutely dominates and goes onto to have a monster career, not only for himself, but for namesake for me because it’s totally awesome. My brother passed away and then next thing you know jared Jones is playing ball again. I know they are two very different people, but just to see that I hope he becomes a star. Me and my brother played baseball all the time growing up, little league, travel ball, and then onto highschool varsity where we both finished up playing, but would still get together with friends and hit the park to play ball. I’m not looking for sympathy or anything, I just personally thought that was awesome seeing him make the big leagues right after my brother passed away and it just kind of gripped my heart man.
Sorry about this, just felt like I could share that little story.
I hope he can provide some light to a dark period in your life.
I am sincerely sorry for your loss, Brsves
All the best to you, Braves. Thanks for sharing your story. Treasure your memories to keep your brother’s spirit alive!
TB uses a TON of pitchers every season. It’s the “Ray’s Way.”
@jay
Seems AJ Puk should pay Cronin $10,000 for being so terrible in his start that his measley 2 IP caused Cronin to have to get sent down. lol.
@MacGromit
More like George Soriano, Andrew Nardi and Sixto Sanchez for not doing their jobs on Opening Day…with a 3-run lead!
Marlins pitching has been dreadful this series. I was expecting a bit better pitching from them and it’s really shocking to see them struggle that badly. If the season carries on for the Marlins like it has these first 3 games, definitely in running for number 1 draft pick and some serious personnel moves in the front office and coaching staff.
Good luck Marlins fans. I have empathy for you guys because us fans have witnessed what it’s like to not have pitching. Stay strong fans!
Let’s back up here a minute. True that the Pirates took the first three games of the series, and their bullpen has been overworked but as a staff, they struck out 17 Bucs in 12 innings of the first game
And they held the Bucs in check until the 12th inning.
The Pirates had several chances to put the game away before the 12th inning and couldn’t because the Marlins pitching was better
Don’t get me wrong, I am glad the Bucs won but in the first game, it wasn’t as easy as it seems
As a Marlins fan, I can say that, based on how bad the bullpen has looked, we’re probably done this year. The reason I say this is, for the last 4+ seasons, the equation that has been the main decider of Marlins success or failure during the season has been the performance of their bullpen. If the bullpen continues to pitch poorly for another week, even when it starters mend and return, will still lose games. This bullpen has shown the ability in two of the last three seasons to blow any lead.
The Fish aren’t cooked yet, there’s plenty of games to wiggle off the hook. Just keep swimming!
They’ve played three games. If we’re using three games as a marker, we might as well include the winless Astros as being done too.
@Slider_withcheese
Different scenarios. We’ve seen the Astros bounce back from slow starts/streaks. During the last 4+ years, we’ve seen the Marlins seasons be decided by whether the bullpen can hold leads or not. The bullpen was handed a 2-run lead yesterday, and they couldn’t put out the fire. That’s two games out of two that the Marlins handed the bullpen a lead, and the bullpen blew both of them. When we’ve seen this in the last 4+ seasons, that was 2021 and 2022 – both years that the Marlins were well out of the race early, and when they had bunches of games blown by the bullpen. This start is pointing to that happening again this year.
Scott sucked again (and has a history of it). Nardi stunk it up again (see 2022). Sanchez didn’t have a clean inning again (coming off 4-year injury). Etc. didn’t do too well.
Therefore, it’s not just a 3 or 4-game sample. The Marlins have shown this for the last 4+ years. If it continues for another batch of games, it’s clear what type of year the bullpen will be giving the Marlins, and that is the decider of there we’ll be. 0-4 when they should be 2-2 – just like the differential of what they should have been in 2021 and 2022 versus what they actually did due to a lousy bullpen. A former NFL coach once said, “You are what your record says you are!” For the Marlins, their starting pitching is that of a Playoff team (when healthy. Their lineup is good enough to support their starting pitching. However, their bullpen brings it all down because they have the type of bullpen that you see on 100-loss teams, so they bring the rest of the team down to a 90+ loss team. If the bullpen doesn’t get its act together, the Marlins are already done. I’ve seen my team’s bullpen fail enough to know the full impact and knot that 90+-losses is where we’re headed this year.