The Marlins announced that right-hander Janson Junk has been signed to a minor league deal. The Beverly Hills Sports Council client will be in major league spring training as a non-roster invitee.
Junk, 29, spent 2024 bouncing around the league. He started the year with the Brewers as a depth arm, getting frequently recalled and optioned back down to the minors. The club designated him for assignment in late July when Devin Williams came off the 60-day injured list. Junk was put on waivers and claimed by the Astros, then went to the Athletics via another waiver claim about a month later. The A’s outrighted him off their roster shortly thereafter and he was able to elect free agency at season’s end.
Around those transactions, he was only able to toss eight innings in the majors. He also got limited big league work in the previous three campaigns, so he now has a 6.75 earned run average in 40 innings in his career overall. His 18% strikeout rate in that time is subpar but his 5.8% walk rate has been good and his 44.3% ground ball rate around average.
His minor league track record has naturally been larger and more impressive. Over the past four years, he has tossed 367 innings on the farm with a 3.83 ERA, 20.5% strikeout rate and 7.2% walk rate. That includes 60 1/3 Triple-A innings in 2024, working both out of the rotation and bullpen, with a 3.58 ERA, 21.3% strikeout rate, 8.3% walk rate and 46.3% ground ball rate.
The Marlins have a fair amount of uncertainty on their pitching staff. In the rotation, they recently traded Jesús Luzardo and lost Braxton Garrett to season-ending surgery. Eury Pérez will return from his surgery this year, but probably not until the All-Star break. As of now, Sandy Alcántara, Ryan Weathers, Edward Cabrera and Max Meyer project as the front four, with guys like Valente Bellozo, Adam Mazur and others in the mix for back-end jobs.
In the bullpen, the Marlins traded away Tanner Scott, A.J. Puk, Bryan Hoeing, Huascar Brazobán and JT Chargois at the deadline. They current have no relievers with more than four years of service time, with Anthony Bender the only one over the three-year mark and Andrew Nardi the only other one beyond the two-year line. In short, it’s wide open.
Since Junk has pitched both as a starter and reliever, he’ll give the Fish a bit of extra depth in both departments. If he makes it to the majors, he is out of options, which will limit his roster flexibility. If he does get a roster spot, he has less than a year of service time, so he can be cheaply retained for the foreseeable future.
He’s Junk!
Junk signing!
Plus some other Junk.
Sometimes the headlines just write themselves.
Call 1 800 Got Junk
Gotta root for him so we can hear the announcers call for Junk out of the pen.
Or calling him a Junk arm after he gives up 5 runs, all earned.
This isn’t Sparta. This is Junk!
Junk in the trunk!
Probably uses that as a pickup line on the ladies lol
His best pitch? A junkball.
If he learns to hit home runs some team will invest big in him because it’ll be a good bet on ‘Junk Bonds’.
Marlins, Junk, are they trying to make this too easy?…
His battery mate should be Reese McGuire.
Junk’s the quintessential AAAA’er. 4.02 career ERA in the minors, with no peripheral that translates well to MLB. He doesn’t K a lot, his control is respectable but nothing special, he doesn’t suppress HR particularly well (though he might find a second life in a pitcher’s park), his hit suppression is weak and his WHIP translates to nearly 1.500 in MLB—the only element that survived his time in the majors is his walk rate, and that’s just not enough.
I hope he’s been good at saving money. At 29 even time with the Dodgers and the Rays is unlikely to benefit him.
Yeah but there are always those guys, like Junk, that are viewed as diamonds in the rough, as the next Moneyball-style find in the, ahem, junk pile, of career minor leaguers, who some club believe they can ‘figure out’ with their coaching staff or their development ethos and convert into a long shot lottery ticket win of a player.
Lovelady : “l hope l was Junk”
You want a stinking lineup?
Janson Junk
Gary Garbage
Tim Trash
Reggie Refuse
Carl Crap
Chris Crud
Dave Dump
Larry Landfill
Ian Incinerator
He’s a junk baller.
The line drive hit him in the junk.
And he’s stuck with calling himself Janson Junk because if he goes by his middle name, Randy Junk sounds even worse.
Or even better.
I thought it was Junk Janson.