Marlins Select Kent Emanuel, Designate Kyle Tyler

The Marlins announced a pair of roster moves, as right-hander Kyle Tyler has been designated for assignment.  This creates roster space for Kent Emanuel, as the southpaw’s contract was selected from Triple-A.

Emanuel was DFA’ed himself in early April and then outrighted off Miami’s 40-man roster.  Because he had previously been outrighted in his career, Emanuel had the right to reject the Marlins’ outright assignment and opt into free agency, though he instead chose to remain in the organization.  That decision has now led to Emanuel getting another call to the majors, even if it might be a short-term move to get a fresh arm into the Marlins’ bullpen.

In his one previous appearance this season, Emanuel allowed four runs over three relief innings in Miami’s 10-2 loss to the Angels on April 3.  This marked Emanuel’s first Major League action since he debuted with 10 games with the Astros in 2021, and he spent 2022-23 pitching in the Phillies’ and Pirates’ farm systems before signing a minor league deal with the Marlins back in February.

Working as both a starter and a reliever throughout his pro career, Emanuel’s swingman experience adds some depth to an injury-plagued Marlins pitching staff.  Jesus Luzardo was just placed on the 15-day injured list yesterday, leaving Miami scrambling for an extra arm on short notice in order to cover Luzardo’s scheduled start.  Andrew Maldonado got the start in his MLB debut and pitched three scoreless innings, and he was one of six pitchers who combined for the bullpen game in Friday’s 3-1 loss to the Nationals.

Tyler covered two of those innings on Friday, allowing one earned run over 21 pitches.  That outing marked Tyler’s first appearance since his own contract was selected from Triple-A last week, and his first MLB game since 2022 when Tyler pitched for the Padres.  All told, Tyler has a 2.45 ERA over 18 1/3 career innings in the Show, though with seven walks and only nine strikeouts allowed in that small sample size.

Because Tyler has also been outrighted before, he’d have the ability to select free agency if he clears DFA waivers and the Marlins tried to outright him off the 40-man roster.  Given the revolving-door nature of Miami’s bullpen, it could be that both Tyler, Emanuel, and other Marlins pitchers with outrights on their resume could be more prone to remaining with the team due to the greater opportunity available for more big league playing time.  The struggling Marlins look like they could be rotating arms through the pitching staff all year long, so a pitcher might prefer this semi-regular workload on the minor league shuttle rather than start from scratch with another organization.  Tyler in particular might prefer sticking with one team given his history of rapid-fire waiver claims.