The Diamondbacks re-signed reliever John Curtiss to a minor league contract last week (link via Arizona Sports). The righty will presumably get a non-roster invitation to Spring Training.
Curtiss returns to the desert for a second season. He’d elected free agency when the D-Backs waived him at the beginning of the offseason. The 32-year-old spent the second half of the year on the MLB roster. Arizona selected his minor league contract at the end of June. Curtiss went on to toss 36 2/3 innings of 3.93 ERA ball. He picked up three holds and even secured a late-season save, his first in the big leagues since 2020.
That marked Curtiss’ heaviest MLB workload in four years. Although the results were solid enough, he only managed a 17% strikeout rate with a 9% swinging strike mark. His fastball sat in the 94 MPH range and he leaned on a low-90s cutter as his main secondary pitch.
Curtiss was miscast for some of the high-leverage spots in which the Diamondbacks were forced to use him late in the season. He has a decent path to winning a middle relief role if he pitches well during camp. A.J. Puk and Justin Martinez will be on the injured list. They’ve yet to make any MLB additions to a bullpen that needs at least two new leverage arms. They’ve brought in Isaiah Campbell and Junior Fernández on minor league deals this winter.
This signing is like 10 days old, you guys gotta lock in 😭😭
His name is actually Curtis but since it snakes it Curtissss
Lol been waiting for a dbacks update and its one from 10 days ago lol
The firsst time around wassn’t great, but hopefully Curtiss can find hiss way back to the major leaguess with the D-Backss