Several players with significant big league service time have elected free agency since the conclusion of the regular season. Per baseball’s collective bargaining agreement, players with more than three years of Major League service time that have been outrighted off a 40-man roster have the right to elect free agency at season’s end.
This list — not to be confused with our full list of 2015-16 free agents (which has been updated to include these names) — represents some of the players that would’ve been arbitration eligible following the season and were regular or fairly regular contributors recently but now find themselves on the open market after being outrighted…
- First baseman and outfielder Chris Parmelee has elected free agency, tweets Chris Cotillo of SB Nation. Parmelee spent the 2015 season in the Orioles organization and made 102 plate appearances with the big league club. He hit a modest .216/.255/.433, but he was much better at Triple-A. The 27-year-old is a career .245/.311/.396 hitter in 1,003 plate appearances. He spent his entire career with the Twins prior to joining Baltimore this year.
- Veteran pitcher Shaun Marcum is also a free agent, per the same tweet from Cotillo. Marcum, 33, is a well-traveled veteran of eight seasons (he didn’t pitch in the majors in 2009 or 2014). He’s tossed 1,030 innings with 167 starts, 28 relief appearances, and a 3.93 ERA. More recently, he struggled at the major league level. He has a 5.34 ERA since 2013 in 113 innings. This season with the Indians, Marcum continued to post a decent strikeout (7.71 K/9) and walk (2.83 BB/9) rate, but he allowed nine home runs in just 33 innings. The fly ball pitcher throws just 85 mph.
- Justin De Fratus has elected to become a free agent, the right-hander announced via his Instagram page (hat tip to Matt Breen of the Philadelphia Inquirer). De Fratus praised the Phillies organization and thanked it for giving him his start as a professional ballplayer “but it’s time for me to start a new chapter in my life and career.” The Phillies outrighted De Fratus off their 40-man roster on Wednesday. The righty was originally drafted by the Phils in the 11th round of the 2007 draft and he’d posted solid career numbers out of Philadelphia’s bullpen (3.08 ERA, 8.1 K/9, 2.27 K/BB rate over 114 IP) prior to this season. Over 80 innings in 2015, De Fratus posted a 5.51 ERA, 7.7 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9. Indicators such as xFIP and SIERA suggest that De Fratus was a bit unlucky to post that 5.51 ERA as he was hurt by a .335 BABIP and 66.2% strand rate. De Fratus, who turns 28 later this month, is entering his first year of arbitration eligibility and MLBTR projects him to earn a $700K salary in 2016.
He can help someone
. After 114 IP of 3.08 ERA 2011-2014, he has 1 bad year and the Phillies dump him.
They wonder why they go half a season with absolutely no pitching.
The Phillies have a bunch of guys who need to be added to the 40 man in order to give them rule 5 protection. I still think De Fratus and Pettibone could be productive but if they need to be sacrificed so be it. Also, relief pitching is very volatile. The good bullpen teams like Pittsburgh are constantly rotating guys season to season
The Guy( De Fratus ) had chance after chance , he will be out of majors leagues in Two Years.
One bad year???? He was PERFECT in save situations until September! No other closer in baseball did his job as well as Paps did for the first 5 months of last season. Then in September he blew 2 saves. I’ll take two blown saves per season from my closer any day of the week and twice on Sundays!
To be fair, Papelbon saw less save opportunities being on the Phillies than say the Pirates. But I’d take it too!
Both Petibone and De Fratus will find success out there. But with all of the pitching talent coming up in Philly (Thompson, Eflin etc.), it’s not too much of a loss. I’m shocked Colton Murray and Dom Brown weren’t part of the outrights though. Dom is a goner in November and while Murray has some potential, I saw the kid in the minors last year and he couldn’t find the zone to save his life. Hopefully he works out his control.
Dom Brown is signed through 2019.
Phils should trade dom brown for a bag of balls or just release him. There is no where for him to play.
Herrera, Alther, Asche, maybe Ruf
With Williams and Quinn at aaa next year. They will probably resign francoeur