Astros Notes: Verlander, France, Framber, Bullpen
Astros camp kicked off last week with the revelation that right-handers Justin Verlander and J.P. France were both slightly behind schedule due to shoulder troubles. Both, however, have been progressing nicely over the past week-plus. Verlander tossed a bullpen session today, after which manager Joe Espada told reporters he’s “encouraged” with his ace’s progression from that shoulder issue (X link via Brian McTaggart of MLB.com). France, meanwhile, pitched off a mound Wednesday — his first time doing so after being limited to flat ground work at the beginning of camp (X link via Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle).
It’s a positive step for both pitchers, though the team still hasn’t declared with any certainty that both players will be ready for Opening Day. If he’s healthy, Verlander would be the presumptive favorite to start Opening Day. France, meanwhile, figures to compete for a spot at the back of the rotation after impressing as a 28-year-old rookie in 2023. Houston manager Joe Espada has raised the possibility of a six-man rotation this year, which would allow France to continue starting alongside Verlander, Framber Valdez, Cristian Javier, Hunter Brown and Jose Urquidy. That’s not set in stone at this point and will of course be dependent on how both righties continue to progress.
On the topic of Valdez, Chandler Rome of the Athletic wrote earlier this week that the left-hander says he has not yet received any sort of extension offer from the team this winter. Houston general manager Dana Brown listed Valdez as an extension target last offseason not long after being hired, and while the team and Valdez discussed parameters last spring, there was a sufficient enough gap that no deal was reached.
Valdez, 30, is controllable through the 2025 season. He and the Astros agreed to a $12.1MM salary for the upcoming season, avoiding an arbitration hearing in doing so. He’s finished ninth or better on each of the past two Cy Young ballots and touts a 3.13 ERA, a 23.5% strikeout rate, an 8.3% walk rate and a massive 63% ground-ball rate in 534 regular season innings, dating back to 2021. Valdez’s name briefly surfaced in trade rumors earlier in the winter, but a deal never seemed especially likely and now feels even less plausible with Verlander and France behind schedule. If anything, Brown has spoken frequently about his desire to constantly be adding to his pitching depth.
Elsewhere on the pitching staff, the Astros are set for an unusual amount of competition in the bullpen this spring, Kawahara writes in a full column. Josh Hader, Ryan Pressly and Bryan Abreu are locked into late-inning roles, and Rafael Montero‘s three-year, $34.5MM contract (covering the 2023-25 seasons) assures him a spot as well. But the Astros lost Phil Maton and Hector Neris to free agency already, and they don’t seem especially likely to re-sign Ryne Stanek, either. They’ll also be without Kendall Graveman, who’ll miss the season due to shoulder surgery.
Among the options to step into prominent bullpen roles are righties Brandon Bielak, Ronel Blanco, Dylan Coleman, Shawn Dubin, Seth Martinez, Forrest Whitley and Oliver Ortega. All are on the 40-man roster, as are southpaws Parker Mushinski and Bennett Sousa. Righty Wander Suero is the most experienced non-roster invitee in camp.
Brown, the team’s general manager, tells Kawahara that the team will “take a close look” at Coleman in particular. Both Espada and pitching coach Josh Miller praised Coleman’s raw stuff and cited a belief that the Astros can get him back to his 2022 form, when he posted a 2.78 ERA, fanned nearly a quarter of his opponents and sat just shy of 98 mph with his heater. The 2023 season was a disaster for Coleman, however, as he posted an 8.84 ERA and walked 19 batters in 18 1/3 innings with Kansas City.
Sousa, too, will get strong consideration. Brown noted to Kawahara that if he’d been acquired prior to the Sept. 1 postseason eligibility deadline last year, he’d likely have been on Houston’s playoff rosters. Espada indicated that he doesn’t feel compelled to have a second lefty in the ‘pen beyond Hader and is focused primarily on just carrying the best group the team has, regardless of handedness. Still, Sousa posted interesting strikeout, walk and swinging-strike rates in a small sample last season (29.4%, 5.9% and 12.9%, respectively) and has fanned nearly a third of his career opponents in parts of three Triple-A seasons.
White Sox Rule 5 Pick Shane Drohan Undergoes Shoulder Surgery
White Sox left-hander Shane Drohan, whom they selected out of the Red Sox organization in the 2023 Rule 5 Draft, underwent a nerve decompression procedure in his left shoulder this morning, manager Pedro Grifol announced (X link via Sox Machine’s James Fegan). The Chicago skipper also revealed that free agent signee John Brebbia is dealing with a calf strain, but the team is hopeful he’ll still be ready for Opening Day.
The current hope is that Drohan will be able to begin a throwing progression by the end of camp, though that will obviously depend on how his shoulder responds in the early stages of his recovery. The 25-year-old southpaw posted excellent numbers with the Red Sox in Double-A to begin the 2023 season before struggling to a 6.87 mark in 89 frames upon being bumped up to Triple-A Worcester. That sample of 89 innings was the first point of real struggle for Drohan to this point in his professional career. He’d posted a combined 3.57 ERA up to that point, leaning heavily on a plus changeup that makes him particularly effective against right-handers.
The Sox haven’t provided a timeline for Drohan’s recovery, though he’ll certainly open the season on the injured list. He’ll accrue big league service time and pay during that time. His status as a Rule 5 pick prevents him from being optioned to the minors. Drohan will need to spend the entire season on the White Sox’ big league roster and/or injured list — with 90 days on the active roster — in order to shed his Rule 5 status for the 2025 season. If the White Sox want to drop him from the roster at any point, he’d need to be placed on waivers and, if he clears, offered back to the Red Sox for a nominal sum of $50K.
Brebbia, 33, signed a one-year, $5.5MM deal that contains a mutual option earlier this offseason. He’s expected to be in the late-inning mix in Chicago after the Sox dismantled the bullpen with offseason trades of Aaron Bummer and Gregory Santos (and, prior to the summer deadline, trades of Reynaldo Lopez, Kendall Graveman and Keynan Middleton).
Over the past two seasons in San Francisco, Brebbia has posted a 3.47 ERA with a 22.5% strikeout rate and 7.1% walk rate. He picked up 24 holds in that time and might’ve logged more, had it not been for his frequent usage as an opener on the team’s patchwork pitching staff.
If Brebbia is forced to the injured list to begin the season, an already unsettled Sox bullpen will be even more wide open. Veteran lefty Tim Hill signed a big league deal this offseason and is assured one spot. Righties Touki Toussaint, Jimmy Lambert and Deivi Garcia are out of minor league options and likely have an inside track on another three. Southpaw Garrett Crochet is an option, but GM Chris Getz spoke earlier this month about wanting to honor the southpaw’s desire to build up as a starter.
The Sox have a large stable of experienced veterans on minor league deals this spring, with Jesse Chavez, Corey Knebel, Dominic Leone, Bryan Shaw and Joe Barlow among their NRIs in camp. Trade acquisition Prelander Berroa, waiver claim Alex Speas and draftees Tanner Banks and Sammy Peralta are all on the 40-man roster as well.
Red Sox Re-Sign Joely Rodriguez To Minor League Deal
The Red Sox re-signed left-handed reliever Joely Rodriguez. Julian McWilliams of the Boston Globe tweeted this morning that Rodriguez was at the Red Sox’ spring facility in Fort Myers, Fla. MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo added that he’s in camp on a minor league deal. Rodriguez is a client of L.A. Sports Management.
Rodriguez, 32, was with the Sox in 2023 but pitched just 11 innings due to oblique, shoulder and hip injuries that combined to result in three different stints on the injured list. He posted a 6.55 ERA in his short time on the mound, striking out 27.5% of his opponents against an 11.8% walk rate and 45.2% ground-ball rate.
It wasn’t a strong year overall for Rodriguez, but the lefty has posted far better numbers over the three preceding seasons in his return from an excellent two-year stint in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. From 2020-22, Rodriguez pitched 109 1/3 frames between the Rangers, Yankees and Mets, working to a 4.28 ERA with even more encouraging secondary marks. Rodriguez fanned 25.5% of his opponents in that time and induced grounders at a huge 55.7% clip. His 10.3% walk rate was still a couple ticks north of the league average, but the lefty offered an enticing blend of missed bats and grounders while excelling at keeping the ball in the park (0.58 HR/9). Metrics like FIP (3.14) and SIERA (3.51) were rather bullish on his work.
The Red Sox have little in the way of established left-handed bullpen options on the 40-man roster. Brennan Bernardino surprised with 50 1/3 innings of 3.20 ERA ball as a 31-year-old rookie last season, but the only other southpaws on the roster are Joe Jacques and minor league starters Brandon Walter and Chris Murphy. Rodriguez joins Lucas Luetge as a veteran southpaw who’ll compete for a job in Alex Cora‘s bullpen. With a healthy spring, he ought to have a decent chance at winning a spot in a bullpen that’s seen a fair bit of turnover this offseason in the wake of a front office shakeup.
Brewers Sign Gary Sanchez To Restructured Deal
February 21: Rosenthal updated his story today to indicate that Sanchez will reportedly accept a $3MM base salary with the potential to get to $7MM via incentives. The deal is now official, per Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Brandon Woodruff has been transferred to the 60-day injured list in a corresponding move. Woodruff’s own deal just become official earlier today. He’s expected to miss most or perhaps all of the upcoming season while rehabbing from shoulder surgery.
February 20: The Brewers and catcher Gary Sanchez agreed to terms on a one-year, $7MM contract in early February — but the team has yet to formally announce the signing. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic now reports that the Brewers had some concerns regarding Sanchez’s wrist, which he fractured in early September last season after being hit by a pitch, and that’ll likely lead to new financial terms. Sanchez will likely still be able to earn up to that same $7MM figure, per the report, but some of it will be contingent upon his wrist holding up. That implies that a lower base salary and incentives seem likely to be baked into the new-look contract arrangement.
While the financial terms of the deal seem likely to change, it doesn’t appear the concern was strong enough to torpedo the deal entirely. And, given that Sanchez was never expected to be the primary catcher on a roster featuring All-Star William Contreras anyhow, his role might not change much either. The veteran slugger will presumably operate as the primary backup to Contreras and also mix in at designated hitter a fair bit.
The Brewers could carry three catchers this season; they inked Eric Haase to a big league deal earlier in the winter. It’s a split contract, but he’s out of minor league options, so the minor league salary would only come into play if he first clears waivers. Rosenthal notes that the Brewers “plan to keep” Haase, though it’s at least possible they could simply be confident he’ll clear waivers and stick around as upper-level depth.
In particular, Sanchez will likely be in the lineup against left-handed pitchers as often as possible. The 31-year-old hit .267/.304/.680 against southpaws in 2023 and has generally posted better power numbers and a higher walk rate when holding the platoon advantage. Sanchez is just a .215 hitter against lefties in his career, but he’s reached base at a .314 clip and slugged .484 against them. Sanchez slotting in as a designated hitter against lefties could be used as a means of getting a breather for any of Milwaukee’s many lefty-swinging outfield/DH/first base options: Christian Yelich, Garrett Mitchell, Sal Frelick or Jake Bauers.
The exact terms of the newly framed deal aren’t yet available, but the Brewers were projected for a $122MM payroll with Sanchez penciled in for his full $7MM guarantee (per Roster Resource). That was already about $10MM shy of their franchise-record mark, and shaving some of Sanchez’s guarantee off the books creates even more wiggle room. Of course, it’s still not known how much Brandon Woodruff will command on his new two-year deal to return to the Brew Crew, though it’ll presumably be quite backloaded given that he’s expected to miss the majority of the 2024 season following shoulder surgery.
However that pair of guarantees shakes out, the Brewers will likely still have some distance between their 2024 payroll figure and the previous franchise-high, established just two years ago in 2022. That could leave a bit of space for further additions to round out the roster, and for a team that already moved ace Corbin Burnes and saw its GM proclaim that he’s “open to more conversations,” the possibility remains that further changes to both the payroll and roster outlook could yet come together.
Rays Planning Utility Role For Amed Rosario
The Rays deepened their infield mix with yesterday’s signing of Amed Rosario to a one-year contract, but despite the 28-year-old’s experience as a starting shortstop in both Cleveland and in New York, he’ll be ticketed for a multi-position role with his new club. Rays president of baseball operations Erik Neander tells Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times that Rosario will likely see time at both middle infield spots and in the outfield corners. Trade acquisition Jose Caballero, meanwhile, is still viewed as the starter at shortstop due to his superior glovework.
Injuries and/or performance can always change those plans, particularly with the entirety of spring training still to play out, but it seems Rosario will be used to spell several players and to boost the team’s production against left-handed pitching. The righty-swinging veteran is a career .298/.339/.467 hitter against lefties (121 wRC+) but has posted a rather hollow .262/.296/.374 line in his career against right-handed pitching.
Entering the 2023 season, Rosario looked like he could be in line for a notable multi-year deal once he reached free agency. From 2021-22, he’s posted a solid .282/.316/.406 batting line (103 wRC+) with enough defensive aptitude to be valued between 5.2 wins above replacement (via FanGraphs) and 6.2 WAR (Baseball Reference). He stumbled with a .263/.305/.378 slash in 2023, however, and seemingly wasn’t able to find a team willing to put down a significant bet that he could rebound to his previous status as a viable starter at the shortstop position.
The move to a utility role will be a new one for Rosario, who’s played the overwhelming majority of his career at shortstop. He logged 190 innings with the Dodgers at second base in 2023, following a deadline swap that sent him to L.A. in exchange for Noah Syndergaard, and he logged a combined 171 innings in the outfield from 2019-22 with the Mets and Guardians. Rosario has just 48 career innings in left field and none in right field. He’s tallied more than 6400 innings at shortstop in his career. While Rosario lacks experience in the outfield, he does still rank in the 95th percentile of MLB players in terms of sprint speed, per Statcast, so he should have the raw ability to cover ground in the corners. His route-running will presumably be a point of focus in camp.
Rosario’s addition helps the Rays take a more patient approach with a number of their young infielders. Junior Caminero and Curtis Mead are widely considered to be among the game’s top prospects (Caminero, in particular), and the Rays also have young infielders Jonathan Aranda, Osleivis Basabe and Austin Shenton on the 40-man roster. Aranda is down to his final minor league option year and probably ticketed for a big league look to begin the season, but the others each have multiple options remaining.
Pohlad: Twins “Not In The Market” For Top Remaining Free Agents
As the baseball world collectively wonders where top-tier free agents like Cody Bellinger, Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery and Matt Chapman will sign, it seems scarcely a day goes by without at least one team effectively proclaiming itself to be out of that market. The Rangers, Blue Jays, Angels, Giants, Nationals and Mariners have all seen a top baseball ops executive or ownership representative cast doubt on their ability and/or willingness to make further free agent additions of note. Add the Twins to that growing list, as owner Joe Pohlad said in an appearance with WCCO radio’s Jason DeRusha today that his club isn’t likely to make a significant late splash like they did when signing Carlos Correa a couple offseasons ago (audio link).
“…We’re not going to go out and spend $30MM on a player right now,” Pohlad plainly stated without mentioning any of Bellinger, Snell, Montgomery or Chapman by name. “The players that are out there right now that probably a bunch of fans are talking about, we are not in the market for those players.”
Minnesota never looked like a good fit for either of the position players — particularly Chapman — but the Twins are known to be looking for rotation help after seeing Sonny Gray, Kenta Maeda and Tyler Mahle depart as free agents. A late deal with Snell or Montgomery would’ve registered as something of a surprise, given the organization’s candid acknowledgment of plans to reduce payroll amid television uncertainty this winter, but their late entry into the Correa market a couple winters ago might’ve left some to wonder whether a similar approach could be in the offing here. Joel Sherman of the New York Post wrote just yesterday that he “would not discount the Twins as a wild card” for the remaining starters, but Pohlad’s comments today strongly suggest otherwise.
The Twins said early this winter that payroll would likely take a step back, and at the time, Dan Hayes of The Athletic reported a rough target of $125-140MM. Minnesota currently sits just south of that number, at a projected $123.5MM per Roster Resource. It should be noted that Pohlad did not rule out any subsequent additions at all — rather just a big play at the top end of the market.
“…There are definitely other players that can have a positive impact on our team that [president of baseball operations Derek Falvey], I’m sure, is looking at,” Pohlad added.
The Twins, for instance, have reportedly expressed interest in unsigned players like Michael Lorenzen, Adam Duvall and Michael A. Taylor. Signing one or even two of those names would cost considerably less than a run at Montgomery or Snell. They also watched old friend Jake Odorizzi‘s recent workout for teams. Falvey and his staff have also never been ones to shy away from trades late in the offseason. Deals to acquire Pablo Lopez (Jan. 23) and Odorizzi (Feb. 17) were both completed well after the New Year in their respective offseasons. The acquisition of Chris Paddack and Emilio Pagan came on the eve of Opening Day in 2022. It remains possible that some pitching or right-handed-hitting outfield help could be acquired via that market.
Generally speaking, it’s been a quiet offseason for the Twins. They shipped stalwart infielder Jorge Polanco to the Mariners late last month in a deal netting right-handers Justin Topa and Anthony DeSclafani and prospects Gabriel Gonzalez and Darren Bowen. Minnesota netted about $6.5MM in that deal as well and reinvested that money in free agent deals to sign Carlos Santana and Jay Jackson. More recently, they flipped utilityman Nick Gordon to the Marlins for lefty reliever Steven Okert.
Red Sox, Brayan Bello Discussing Extension
The Red Sox and right-hander Brayan Bello are actively engaged in contract discussions, Bello himself tells Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com. While the 24-year-old righty didn’t put a specific timetable on when an agreement might come together, he suggested it’s possible that a deal could come together this spring.
Bello has long been viewed as a potential core piece for the Sox. Prior to making his big league debut in 2022, he was widely regarded as one of the Sox’ five to ten best prospects. He’d posted strong numbers in the upper minors and drawn praise from scouts for both a plus changeup and potentially plus heater, leading to projections as a future mid-rotation arm if all went according to plan.
Through the first season-plus of his career, Bello has pitched 214 1/3 innings of 4.37 ERA ball. His 20% strikeout rate is below the league average, but his 7.7% walk rate is better than average and his 56.1% ground-ball rate is among the best in the game for starting pitchers. That grounder rate and his command have led fielding-independent metrics to be a bit more bullish on the righty than his earned run average (4.11 FIP, 4.14 SIERA).
Bello’s four-seamer and more heavily used sinker have both been hit hard by MLB opponents, but that highly touted changeup has indeed stood out as a clear plus pitch for him; opponents have batted just .186 and slugged only .256 off the pitch in his career thus far. That’s been his only pitch with consistently strong results to date, but Bello sits 95.2 mph on his sinker and 95.7 mph on his four-seamer, so the velocity is certainly there for him to find success with his primary offerings. His 11% swinging-strike rate and 32.1% opponents’ chase rate are both right in line with the league-average marks, so there’s room for his strikeout rate to creep up a bit even in the absence of significant gains with his fastballs.
To this point in his career, Bello has amassed 1.082 years of major league service time. That puts him on track to be eligible for arbitration in the 2025-26 offseason and keeps him under Red Sox control through at least the 2028 season. Contract extensions for starting pitchers in this service bracket have been surprisingly rare in recent years, as shown in MLBTR’s Contract Tracker. For a whole decade, Madison Bumgarner‘s five-year, $35MM extension with the Giants back in April of 2012 stood as the record for this service class.
Braves righty Spencer Strider utterly shattered that precedent when he put pen to paper on a six-year, $75MM extension after just having surpassed one year of service (1.003). That extension came on the heels of an overpowering rookie season in which Strider finished second (to his own teammate, Michael Harris II) in National League Rookie of the Year voting. He’d logged 131 2/3 innings with a 2.67 ERA while fanning a borderline comical 38.3% of his opponents.
Bello’s performance to date doesn’t measure up to that dominance from Strider, and he’d likely fall well shy of that highwater mark on an extension of his own. Cincinnati right-hander Hunter Greene‘s even more recent six-year, $53MM extension could be viewed as a more salient comp for Bello’s camp, though it’s not perfectly analogous in its own right. Greene’s rookie showing in 2022 featured 125 2/3 innings of 4.44 ERA ball, and when he signed his contract in April of 2023, he carried a career 4.42 ERA in 148 2/3 frames. His path to those results was quite different — overpowering triple-digit fastball, plus strikeout rate, average command and a pronounced fly-ball profile — but they roughly align with Bello’s run-prevention numbers. Greene, however, is generally regarded as having a higher ceiling.
Both Strider and Greene signed six-year deals with a club option for a seventh season. A six-year deal would carry Bello through the 2029 season, and a seventh-year club option would give the Sox control over Bello’s 2030 campaign. If the two sides were to deviate from that structure, age could be a factor; Greene’s deal began in his age-23 campaign and Strider’s in his age-24 season. The 2024 campaign will be Bello’s age-25 season. A six-year deal and club option would keep him under club control through his age-31 year and position him to become a free agent entering his age-32 season.
If Bello wants a faster path to free agency (e.g. five years and an option), that’d be understandable but would also surely mean taking a guarantee shy of Greene’s $53MM. Even on a six-year deal, he’d likely fall a bit shy of that mark. When comparing him to Greene, it also bears mentioning that Greene had a larger safety net as a former No. 2 overall pick who’d received a $7.25MM bonus in the draft. Bello signed as a teenager out of the Dominican Republic for a $28K bonus and doesn’t have that type of financial security already established.
Whatever shape talks take, the mere fact that Boston is actively engaged in contract talks with a core young player represents a change of pace. The team waited until Rafael Devers was a year from free agency before shelling out a massive 10-year, $313.5MM extension (on top of his existing $17.5MM salary for his final arb year). Extensions for Xander Bogaerts (six years, $120MM) and Chris Sale (five years, $145MM) both similarly came when they were established stars with more than five years of MLB service. Again looking to our Contract Tracker, the only other pre-arb extension the Sox have given out in the past decade was Garrett Whitlock‘s four-year, $18.75MM deal. Prior to that, you’d have to go way back to Clay Buchholz in 2011 to find an extension for a player who’d yet to reach arbitration.
Red Sox CEO Sam Kennedy spoke earlier in camp about a need to begin exploring this type of contract earlier in his players’ careers (link via MassLive’s Sean McAdam). “Starting earlier, is probably a lesson,” Kennedy said just a few days ago. “We’ve not had a ton of success in extending our own guys. We have in the past and it’s been a great recipe for success. But I think starting those conversations earlier is a great idea.”
White Sox’ Edgar Navarro To Undergo Tommy John Surgery
White Sox reliever Edgar Navarro is slated to undergo Tommy John surgery in early March, the team announced to reporters Tuesday evening (X link via Scott Merkin of MLB.com). He’ll miss the 2024 season as a result and could be sidelined early in 2025 as well.
Navarro, 26, made his big league debut with the ChiSox in 2023, pitching 8 2/3 innings out of manager Pedro Grifol’s bullpen. He was tagged for seven runs on 11 hits and a pair of walks with nine punchouts in that brief cup of coffee, with the bulk of the damage coming in one nightmare outing that saw him yield five runs in a lone inning of work. Chicago outrighted him off the 40-man roster in December to clear a roster spot for free-agent signee Erick Fedde. Injured players can’t be placed on outright waivers, so the fact that Navarro was outrighted a couple months back suggests this is a new injury that occurred in the offseason.
In the upper minors, Navarro has enjoyed better run prevention but still displayed shaky strikeout and walk tendencies. He notched a combined 3.59 ERA between Double-A and Triple-A in 2023 but did so while fanning just 19% of his opponents against a 16.1% walk rate. Navarro kept the ball on a huge 59.8% clip in the minors and at a 53.8% clip in the big leagues, leaning hard on a sinker that averaged 93.6 mph. That’s an encouraging trait, but he’ll need to drastically improve his K-BB profile if he’s to find sustained success at the game’s top level. The injury in question will prevent his ability to refine that K-BB profile for at least the next year.
Navarro has never been considered among the White Sox’ top prospects, due in no small part to his poor command. He’s shown the ability to miss bats at times and has consistently piled up grounders at borderline elite levels, but the 6’1″ righty has also walked 12.8% of his opponents across all professional levels and plunked a whopping 44 batters in 273 professional innings. In all, he’s allowed 16.2% of his opponents to reach base without even putting a ball in play.
MLBTR Chat Transcript
Click here to read a transcript of Tuesday’s chat with MLBTR’s Steve Adams.
Rockies, Matt Carasiti Agree To Minor League Deal
The Rockies brought right-handed reliever Matt Carasiti back on a minor league deal, per Baseball America’s Matt Eddy. He’ll surely be in camp as a non-roster player after tossing 24 1/3 innings for the Rox in the big leagues last year.
Carasiti, 32, was drafted by the Rockies in the sixth round back in 2012. He made his big league debut for Colorado in 2016 before being traded to the Cubs in 2017 and then bouncing to the Giants, Mariners and Red Sox via minor league free agency. Last year’s 24 1/3 innings in his Rockies return resulted in a 6.29 ERA, 14.5% strikeout rate, 10% walk rate and huge 56.1% ground-ball rate out of Bud Black’s bullpen. He posted better results in Triple-A, notching a 3.33 ERA, 21.8% strikeout rate and 10.1% walk rate in 27 frames.
Carasiti has a 6.89 ERA in 49 2/3 big league innings over parts of three seasons — two with the Rockies and one (2019) with the Mariners. He still averaged 95.4 mph on his sinker last season. The Rockies’ bullpen was loaded with question marks even before word of Daniel Bard‘s knee surgery.
Justin Lawrence, Tyler Kinley and Nick Mears are all likely locked into spots. Lawrence stepped up as the team’s closer in 2023, while neither Kinley or Mears can be optioned to the minors. Righty Jake Bird‘s 2023 performance presumably earned him a spot as well. There are still several open spots, and even if Carasiti doesn’t grab one of those, his prior big league experience could make him an option whenever a need arises in the coming season.