Left-hander Parker Mushinski went unclaimed on waivers after being designated for assignment last week, the Astros announced Monday. He’s been assigned outright to Triple-A Sugar Land and will remain with the organization but no longer occupy a spot on the 40-man roster. Mushinski’s DFA came as the corresponding move for Kyle Tucker’s return from the 60-day injured list.
The 28-year-old Mushinski has pitched in each of the past three seasons with Houston, logging a combined 33 innings of relief and pitching to a 5.45 ERA along the way. He’s fanned 17.4% of his opponents against an 8.1% walk rate and kept 45.2% of his batted balls on the ground. He’s had spotty command against lefties but generally prevented them from hitting for power, evidenced by a career .255/.354/.327 slash from opposing southpaw bats. However, righties have tattooed Mushinski at a brutal .280/.357/.587 clip in his career. He’s faced 84 righties in the big leagues and surrendered 13 extra-base hits (five homers, eight doubles).
While Mushinski hasn’t had much big league success, he does have a sharp track record in Triple-A. The 2017 seventh-rounder out of Texas Tech has pitched in parts of four seasons at the top minor league level and sports a collective 3.25 ERA, 27.3% strikeout rate and 10.1% walk rate there. That’s come over a sample of 127 1/3 innings, with all but one of his 118 appearances at the Triple-A level coming out of the bullpen. Mushinski isn’t a particularly hard thrower — his four-seamer has sat just over 92 mph this season — but he’s nevertheless missed bats at a high level in the upper minors, both in terms of swinging-strike rate and his raw strikeout rates.
This is Mushinski’s first career outright assignment, and he also lacks three full seasons of big league service. As such, he can’t reject the outright assignment in favor of free agency for the time being. He’ll be able to become a minor league free agent in the offseason, however.
Cool name.