The Braves have signed right-hander James Karinchak to a minor league contract, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reports. Should Karinchak make Atlanta’s roster, he’ll earn $840K in guaranteed money, as per 7News Boston’s Ari Alexander. He’s represented by Gaeta Sports Management.
Best known for his days as a strikeout artist in Cleveland’s bullpen, it has now been more than two years since Karinchak last pitched in a big league game. His 2024 workload consisted of just 6 2/3 innings in the minors due to shoulder problems, and after the Guardians outrighted him and allowed Karinchak to enter free agency last winter, he landed with the White Sox on a minor league deal. Karinchak posted a 2.45 ERA and a 28.1% strikeout rate over 29 1/3 innings for Triple-A Charlotte before he was released in June.
Those seemingly strong numbers in Triple-A were undermined by a 16.5% walk rate, which is essentially the story of Karinchak’s career. He owns an eye-popping 36.3% career strikeout rate over his MLB career, and he also posted a 3.10 ERA over 165 2/3 innings with Cleveland from 2019-23. However, a 14.1% walk rate and some problems with the home run ball limited Karinchak’s effectiveness, plus injuries like his shoulder woes or a teres major strain in 2022 provided further obstacles.
The Guardians have one of baseball’s more celebrated pitching development staffs, so the fact that the Guards chose to move on from Karinchak doesn’t bode well for the possibility that he might solve his control problems. Still, Karinchak’s strikeout potential is so tantalizing that it isn’t at all surprising to see teams like the White Sox or Braves take minor league fliers on the righty to see if he can get things on track, or perhaps Atlanta’s coaches think they might have a fix. Karinchak is still only 30 years old and he has two years of arbitration eligibility remaining, so there’s hidden-gem potential for the Braves if Karinchak can manage even average control.
Seeing the phrase “teams like the White Sox or Braves…” can’t be a welcome sight for Atlanta fans.
It’s a minor league depth signing, so no real worries either way. AAA needs a full roster as well.
The Braves season last year was a nightmare, the Dodgers would not have made the playoffs if same circumstances had happened to them. If the Braves fix their bullpen, add a starter, resign Kim, and move Profar to dh, they will be there.
Karinchak was a monster coming up through the minors. In 2019 he was striking out better than 20 batters per 9 IP. At that rate his walk issues didn’t matter because any extra base runners would just end up stranded by strikeouts.
It was just two pitches. A high spin fastball that seemed to rise at 97-99, and a 12-6 curve that simply fell off the table. They were tunneled well, and basically you had to guess. There was such separation on the two that if you guessed heater in the zone and were wrong, you were swinging at a curve that was hitting dirt. If you guessed a curve that would stay in the zone, it was a fastball at your eyes.
But he was very likely a guy who was helped by the sticky stuff. Trevor Bauer noted that guys who used that would likely see their spin rates peak and valley in telltale ways throughout a game. Bauer went so far as to show what that would look like on one of his YouTube videos. Karinchak’s profile matched it pretty closely. He never got caught during the Crack down on it but there was a funny moment where the Mariners were so convinced he was doing it that they had the umps check his hair.
He probably could have survived that but then he also lost velocity after the injuries. I’m not sure there’s really a way to rehab that kinda pitcher. Guys at 30 don’t usually suddenly learn control and his stuff is gone in a way that seems unlikely to return. He’s not gonna suddenly learn 2 more pitches or completely change his violent delivery.
Guys at 30 don’t usually suddenly learn control –
Nolan Ryan age 29, 5.8 bb/9
Nolan Ryan age 33, 3.8 bb/9
Not saying he’s Nolan Ryan, but things are possible.
Nice info Col-c. Thanks.
This winter is looking a lot like last winter for the Bravos. Throwing as much crap up on the wall and see what sticks. Maybe AA needs some of that sticky stuff.
It’s early December. The Braves have already done better than last winter so far. Complain in February if key areas havent been addressed.
AA,always trying to catch lighting in bottle instead of pursuing proven talent.
It’s depth bullpen piece. Relievers, except for the top 15 or so closers, are so unreliable year to year that you’re just as likely to catch lightning in a bottle as you are paying significantly more for “proven talent” and having their production fall off a cliff.