The Marlins have claimed right-hander John McMillon off waivers from the Royals, according to announcements from both clubs. The righty was designated for assignment when Kansas City acquired infielder Paul DeJong. Miami had open roster spots after its deadline selloff and their 40-man roster count goes to 39.
McMillon, now 26, wasn’t selected in the shortened five-round 2020 draft and then signed with the Royals as an undrafted free agent. He is a pitcher who was been considered to have a wide range of potential outcomes because he can regularly send batters back to the dugout but also to first base. He has 129 2/3 innings on his minor league résumé with a 4.79 earned run average. He has struck out 35.2% of batters faced in that time but also given out walks at a massive 17.7% clip.
He was selected to the Royals’ roster in August of last year and pitched four major league innings for them. He allowed one earned run and struck out eight opponents without issuing a walk. But he’s been on optional assignment for all of this year, pitching 30 1/3 innings of the minor league total mentioned above. He’s still walking 17.7% of batters that step into the box but his 23.8% strikeout rate is a bit of a dip from previous seasons, leading to a 6.53 ERA.
It’s understandable that the Royals gave up on a pitcher that clearly still needs some fine tuning, while he’s a sensible flier for the Fish. McMillon can still be optioned for the rest of this season and two more campaigns. They just traded away A.J. Puk, Tanner Scott, Bryan Hoeing, JT Chargois and Huascar Brazobán in the past few days, blowing a huge hole in their bullpen. McMillon is an upside flier with plenty of time for the Marlins to unlock it.
Seemingly misses bats, so an interesting flier…
Don’t really get why Anthony Bender, Cronin, and Faucher are still here, but hopefully they don’t fall off before the end of the season, and can be traded then
I think I saw somewhere they addressed this and the answer is literally they couldn’t get rid of EVERY player in the pen and these three have a large amount of team control left. I agree with you that those three could have easily also been traded but hey maybe they keep developing and form the core of the pen for next season?
I’ve had this problem for many years; there is zero reason for a team like the Marlins to hold onto bullpen arms with value. Even with team control, bullpen arms are extremely volatile. It makes way more sense to get value for them when you can, for that reason, at least in a situation like the Marlins’. I get why other guys are still here, but not those 3
The Marlins aren’t going to be competitive next year, so maybe they hope to have more teams involved by waiting until the offseason? Or for some reason, they think they’ll be in position to add next year, with certain arms coming back healthy…Personally, that seems like more of the old in between process, which has hurt the Marlins for 15+ years. Those arms should be traded by early May, if they prove healthy, in my view
“He misses bats” fer sher: He’s so wild that batters can’t even reach his pitches.
Cheap price to pay to acquire a McMILLION !!
I’ve followed John since he was in high school in Texas. Great kid that has closer stuff if he can harness that fastball. I thought he had solved the control issues last year once the Royals called him up, but he got hurt shortly after that and here we are. Hopefully, he’ll find it again with the Marlins and get another shot in the Show.