Left-hander Andrew Vasquez is currently pitching for Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos of the Mexican League but Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 reports that multiple MLB clubs are interested in him. His deal has a $0 buyout for MLB affiliates.
Vasquez, 31, is out to a great start in Mexico. He has tossed 7 2/3 innings over seven appearances without allowing an earned run. He has only struck out six of the 32 batters he’s faced, an 18.8% pace, but has surrendered just one walk. He has done that while serving as the club’s closer, with three saves already. The Mexican League is generally very hitter-friendly. The league-wide earned run average is 5.73 this year while batters have a combined line of .292/.371/.458.
Of course, that’s a tiny sample size, but Vasquez also has some decent numbers in affiliated ball. He has 63 2/3 major league innings on his track record with a 4.24 ERA. His 21.5% strikeout rate and 10.6% walk rate are a bit worse than average but not by much, while his 48.1% ground ball rate is strong.
He had a rough season in 2024, being stuck in Triple-A with the Tigers and posting a 5.11 ERA for the Toledo Mud Hens, but he has previously had good minor league numbers. From 2021 to 2023, he logged 87 1/3 Triple-A innings with a 2.89 ERA, 36.4% strikeout rate and 9.1% walk rate.
Several teams are dealing with injuries to left-handed relievers, with the Mets one prominent example. They recently lost both A.J. Minter and Danny Young to the injured list. Young will undergo Tommy John surgery and Minter might require season-ending lat surgery. The club signed Brooks Raley but he’s recovering from his own Tommy John procedure and has already been placed on the 60-day IL. A.J. Puk of the Diamondbacks and Tim Mayza of the Pirates are also on the 60-day IL for their respective clubs.
Taking it all into consideration, it’s understandable that clubs are sniffing around. Vasquez has a competent résumé and his Mexican career has started well. With the rate of pitching injuries, it seems he may get a chance somewhere.
Photo courtesy of Rick Osentoski, Imagn Images.
I don’t believe you. Tigers fan — guy was real bad
Since the yuppies’ took over MLB front offices with their precious statistics to make up for their lack of working their way up and leaning the game at multiple levels, the way batting and pitching has changed. They exploited the arbitrage of 4 balls gets the batter a walk, but the batter could hit foul balls till a week from Tuesday and still be up at the plate (many did graduate work at Ivy League colleges to look at statistical computer data to figure this out). This meant that getting the 3rd strike was most important, and to do so required throwing the ball faster and faster and with more and more spin on it. Any inquisitive 7th grader reading up on Human Anatomy could figure out that this meant that in more cases than not, pitchers were going to get injured. But Tommy John surgery could cure all that. In time TJ surgery went from an epidemic to the new normal. Which is where we are now. Unfortunately, it’s more and more difficult to find healthy pitchers for all ML teams. Some – such as the Orioles – have difficulty finding 3 healthy starters at any one time….even though the average start went 5.1 innings in 2024 and will go down again this year.
So ML teams are “interested” in any healthy or semi-healthy pitching arm coming from any country. They don’t care if the guys they sign get hurt….they just put the operation on their medical plan, and they never stop searching for another body. As for the pitchers: The minimum ML salary is $760,000 a year…an unheard of amount of pay in most countries. And if one is a part of the 2-5% that somehow succeeds for a few years, they can make millions!
Wow Samuel….guess your Golden Years aren’t going great huh
He wasn’t ant better on jays
can’t be worse than Cionel Perez for Baltimore… bring AV!
Shame he’s a lefty the jays could use a guy who can get some innings but gawd forbid he’s a lefty
The Angels bullpen could use a Mexican league all star.
Osuna is beating his girl to this
drawing interest from who? he’s been awful his whole career. no secrets
Any team that needs a healthy body. He has major league experience and hasn’t been terrible. Many lefty’s develop late.
Samuel just yapped about Yuppies, weekdays, Ivy League universities, 7th graders, the human anatomy, Tommy John Surgery, the Orioles, average innings pitched of a start in 2024, medical plans, and the sad state of payroll imbalance in the world compared to the U.S. in one comment.
All in a Andrew Vasquez article. At least there’s some interest.
Sammy’s mad his application for internship application with the Yankees in 1971 was denied and held a grudge ever since
Sammy is 1 of 1