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Marlins Outright Austin Pruitt

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Marlins right-hander Austin Pruitt went unclaimed on waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Jacksonville, per the team’s transactions log at MLB.com. He was designated for assignment Friday. It’s the second time since acquiring Pruitt prior to the trade deadline that Miami has passed him through waivers.

Pruitt, 32, has the service time to reject the assignment in favor of free agency. However, with the regular-season calendar winding down and a $617,500 salary that checks in a bit north of the league minimum — he’d forfeit the remainder of his guarantee by electing free agency — Pruitt may simply ride out the season with the Marlins’ top minor league affiliate or hope to be added back to the 40-man roster. If he’s not on the 40-man roster at the end of the season, he’ll have the opportunity to elect free agency then, as an outrighted player with three-plus years of MLB service time.

The Marlins acquired Pruitt alongside outfielder Bryan De La Cruz in the trade that sent Yimi Garcia to the Astros, but De La Cruz was the team’s primary target in that deal. Pruitt has pitched well in a limited sample with the Fish, holding opponents to one run on four hits and no walks with four strikeouts in 4 2/3 big league frames. He’s been sharp in Triple-A, too, with just four runs and a 10-to-1 K/BB ratio through 11 innings of work.

Pruitt has spent most of the 2021 season on the 60-day injured list as he recovered from Sept. 2020 surgery to repair a fracture in his elbow. That elbow trouble last year kept him off the mound for the entirety of the shortened 2020 campaign. In 207 Major League innings, most of which came with the Rays from 2017-19, Pruitt has a 4.83 ERA with a below-average 17.2 percent strikeout rate, an excellent 5.7 percent walk rate and an above-average 48.5 percent ground-ball rate.

Marlins Designate Austin Pruitt For Assignment

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The Marlins have designated right-hander Austin Pruitt for assignment, Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald was among those to relay. The move opens space on the active and 40-man rosters for reliever Paul Campbell, who has been activated from the COVID-19 injured list.

It’s the second time this season the Fish have designated Pruitt, whom they acquired alongside Bryan de la Cruz from the Astros in the Yimi García trade shortly before the deadline. Pruitt cleared waivers the first time and was selected back to the big league roster not too long after. He has made four relief appearances for Miami, tossing 4 2/3 innings of one-run ball with four strikeouts and no walks.

Pruitt will now find himself back on the waiver wire, where the league’s 29 other teams will again have the opportunity to pick him up. The 32-year-old signed a $617.5K contract to avoid arbitration last winter, so he’s making just slightly more than the league minimum. Any claiming team would owe Pruitt the remainder of that salary (approximately $109K) for the season’s final month. If he were to pass through unclaimed, he’d have the right to elect free agency in lieu of an outright assignment.

In addition to swapping out Pruitt for Campbell, the Marlins will also add Zach Thompson to the bullpen. The 27-year-old has started all thirteen of his big league appearances but is moving to the relief corps for the stretch run, manager Don Mattingly informed reporters (including Daniel Álvarez Montes of ElExtraBase). That’s the role Thompson filled with Triple-A Jacksonville before his early-June promotion. All eight of his outings with the Jumbo Shrimp came in relief.

Miami will move forward with a starting group of Trevor Rogers (who returned from the restricted list yesterday), Sandy Alcantara, Jesús Luzardo, Elieser Hernández and top prospect Edward Cabrera. That’s an extremely exciting and talented group that figures to be the backbone of future Marlins’ clubs that should be more competitive than they’ve been this season. And that’s not even counting Sixto Sánchez and Max Meyer, who haven’t pitched in the majors this year (Sánchez due to injury, Meyer because it’s his first pro season) but have immense promise themselves.

Thompson isn’t as well-regarded as that group of high-octane arms, but he looks to be a great find himself. Signed to a minor league deal last offseason after spending seven seasons in the White Sox organization, Thompson has pitched well in his first big league look. The right-hander has worked 62 2/3 innings of 3.16 ERA ball. He has been the beneficiary of some batted ball luck and only has a 20.2% strikeout rate, but Thompson has also thrown a fair amount of strikes and generated whiffs at a decent 11.6% clip.

With that performance, Thompson should have solidified his spot on the 40-man roster over the upcoming offseason. He looks like a solid back-of-the-rotation option who could again be called upon as a starter in the event of injuries or underperformance next year. For now, the bullpen transition will help to keep his workload in check. Thompson’s 77 2/3 innings between Triple-A and the big leagues this year is his highest single-season total since he worked 93 1/3 frames in High-A back in 2017.

Every Team’s Initial September Callups

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The limit on active roster players expanded from 26 to 28 today, as the calendar flipped to September. Every team announced at least two additions to the big league club (some teams made three or more due to injured list placements). Here’s a recap of today’s spate of transactions:

Marlins’ Jake Eder To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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Marlins pitching prospect Jake Eder has been diagnosed with a torn ulnar collateral ligament and will undergo Tommy John surgery to repair the damage, Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald reports. The procedure will quite likely wipe out Eder’s entire 2022 campaign.

Miami has amassed one of the deepest and most enviable collections of young pitching in all of baseball, but the loss of Eder puts a notable dent in that promising bumper crop. The 22-year-old Eder has seen his stock skyrocket since being selected out of Vanderbilt in the fourth round of last summer’s draft, with multiple publications now listing him among the game’s 100 best prospects.

After the canceled 2020 season, Eder jumped directly into Double-A to begin his professional career and has dominated despite an aggressive assignment after a nearly year-long layoff from pitching in a competitive setting. He’s totaled 71 1/3 innings in Pensacola thus far and pitched to a pristine 1.77 ERA with a huge 34.5 percent strikeout rate, a 9.4 percent walk rate and a strong 50.3 percent ground-ball rate. Baseball America ranked Eder as the sport’s No. 68 prospect on its updated midseason rankings, and MLB.com listed the left-hander at No. 81 on its own summer reranking of the game’s best farmhands.

Eder’s immediate success might have made him a candidate for a promotion to the big leagues as early as 2022. Instead, he’ll spend the season rehabbing with an eye toward getting back on the mound to begin his age-24 campaign in 2023. Even with Eder sidelined, however, the Marlins are still deep in young arms who’ve either found big league success or been ranked among the game’s most promising prospects.

Sandy Alcantara and Pablo Lopez have solidified themselves as quality big league hurlers and each can be controlled another three seasons. Left-hander Trevor Rogers has been one of the best pitchers in the National League this season. Jesus Luzardo and Elieser Hernandez have both had some big league success but are seeking more consistency. Sixto Sanchez missed the 2021 season due to injury but is viewed as a key long-term piece of the rotation after a strong debut effort in 2020. Hard-throwing righty Edward Cabrera ranks among the game’s best prospects and impressed in his own MLB debut last week. Twenty-seven-year-old righty Zach Thompson has been an outstanding find for the Marlins on a minor league deal. Righty Max Meyer, the No. 3 pick in 2020, has dominated in Double-A. Lefty Braxton Garrett is viewed more as a depth arm at this point, but he was the No. 7 overall pick back in 2016. Prospects like Dax Fulton and Eury Perez (not to be confused with former big league outfielder Eury Perez) are also well-regarded, but further from the big leagues.

The injuries to Sanchez and now Eder serve as a reminder of the inherent risk associated with any pitching prospect, but there are few clubs that can boast such a deep collection of talented arms. That should serve the Marlins well both in terms of their 2022 pitching staff and also with their approach to the offseason trade market. The Marlins are known to be on the lookout for long-term options both at catcher and in center field, and that impressive stockpile of controllable pitching figures to serve them well in that endeavor, even with some injuries impacting the group.

Pablo Lopez's Rehab Halted Over "Minor Setback"

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Mike Moustakas left tonight’s game due to right hip tightness, replaced by Asdrubal Cabrera at third base to begin the bottom of the second inning.  Moustakas struck out in his lone plate appearance (in the top of the second) and Bobby Nightengale of The Cincinnati Enquirer noted that Moustakas “hopped on his left leg a couple of times” following a game-opening single from Miguel Rojas.  This was one of four balls hit in Moustakas’ direction during what ended up as a five-run inning for the Marlins en route to their 6-1 win over the Reds.

  • Pablo Lopez was scratched from a scheduled rehab start on Thursday and is now returning to Miami, Marlins manager Don Mattingly told reporters (including MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola).  A right rotator cuff strain sent Lopez to the injured list (retroactively) on July 14, yet even with just over a month remaining in the season, Mattingly didn’t commit to the idea of potentially shutting Lopez down.  “Nothing more than…just slowing him down, making sure we’re careful with him.  Sounded like a minor setback for sure,” Mattingly said.  “Probably not minor to Pablo, who’s wanting to get going.  But I know the medical staff’s going to be careful with him.”  Lopez has posted a 3.03 ERA/3.50 SIERA over 101 innings for Miami this season, with above-average strikeout (27.1%) and walk (6.1%) rates and strong hard-hit ball numbers.

Marlins Sign Cody Carroll

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The Marlins signed reliever Cody Carroll to a minor league contract this week, according to the MLB.com transactions tracker. He has been assigned to their Florida Complex League affiliate but figures to report to Triple-A Jacksonville some time soon. Carroll was released by the Orioles a few weeks ago.

A well-regarded bullpen prospect coming up in the Yankees’ system, Carroll was part of the group New York sent to Baltimore in the 2018 Zack Britton deal. He made his major league debut that August and made fifteen appearances down the stretch. He missed almost the entire 2019 campaign recovering from back surgery and was bombed in three appearances last season before being outrighted off the 40-man roster. Carroll owns a dismal 13.74 ERA over 19 career big league frames.

Before his release, he spent the 2021 campaign with the Orioles’ top affiliate in Norfolk. The 28-year-old posted a 5.57 ERA in that hitter-friendly environment. While Carroll struck out a solid 25.6% of batters faced, he also issued walks at an elevated 12.2% clip and served up five home runs in 21 innings — a continuation of trouble with the long ball that has plagued him in the majors as well.

Carroll’s time in Baltimore obviously didn’t go as he’d intended, but he posted great numbers up through Double-A in the New York organization. There’s no risk for Miami in taking a look to see if he can recapture some of the form he showed at the lower levels and work his way back to the big leagues down the stretch.

Marlins Designate Bryan Mitchell For Assignment

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The Marlins are designating right-hander Bryan Mitchell for assignment, Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald was among those to relay. The move creates an active roster spot for top pitching prospect Edward Cabrera, who has officially been recalled to make his major league debut tonight against the Nationals. Mitchell’s designation also creates a vacancy on the 40-man roster, which now sits at 39.

Miami selected Mitchell to the big league club last week. He’s since made two appearances, tossing four innings of two-run ball out of the bullpen. He struck out four batters while issuing one unintentional walk in that time. That brief showing marked Mitchell’s first big league work in three years, as he hadn’t made it back to the majors after struggling to a 5.42 ERA over 73 innings with the 2018 Padres.

In the intervening seasons, Mitchell has bounced around between a few organizations. He’s spent most of the past couple years at Triple-A, and that’s been true in 2021 as well. Mitchell signed with the Phillies and began the year with their top affiliate in Lehigh Valley. He was released with a 6.04 ERA and a mediocre 20:16 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 28 1/3 frames with the IronPigs. But Mitchell has looked better after landing with the Marlins on a minors pact. He tossed twelve innings of four-run ball with fourteen strikeouts and six walks for Triple-A Jacksonville to earn the long-awaited call back to the majors last week.

Mitchell will now find himself on waivers over the coming days. If he passes through unclaimed, he’d have the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency because he has previously been outrighted in his career.

Marlins To Promote Edward Cabrera

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The Marlins are promoting top pitching prospect Edward Cabrera to make his Major League debut Wednesday against the Nationals, per a club announcement (Twitter link, with video of Cabrera being informed he’s being called up to the Majors). Cabrera is already on the 40-man roster, so Miami will only need to make a corresponding 26-man roster move.

It’s been a monster season between Class-A Advanced, Double-A and Triple-A for the highly touted Cabrera, as evidenced by a combined 2.93 ERA and 36.9 percent strikeout rate in 61 1/3 innings. Cabrera was out earlier in the season due to an inflamed nerve in his right biceps — an injury that cost him the first two months of the season. He looks quite healthy now, having punched out 11 or more batters in three of his past four starts at the Triple-A level.

Cabrera, 23, is featured on virtually any ranking of the game’s top prospects one could find. He’s No. 30 on the midseason Top 100 over at MLB.com, No. 36 at The Athletic, No. 43 at FanGraphs and No. 74 at Baseball America. ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel didn’t rank Cabrera in his Top 50 but listed him as one of “20 others who were considered.” Specific rankings aside, the broad-reaching consensus is that Cabrera is one of the most promising young arms in the sport.

Cabrera draws praise for a heater that sits in the 93-97 mph range but has scraped triple digits as well. He generates more grounders than whiffs with the fastball but complements it with a potentially plus slider and an improving changeup. Listed at 6’5″ and 217 pounds, he has the prototypical size and frame that many look for in ideal pitching prospects.

Based on the timing of his promotion, Cabrera will be controlled by the Marlins through at least the 2027 season. He’s being promoted late enough in the year that Super Two status is long since a consideration, although with any prospect promotion, it’s also key to note that future optional assignments could alter one or both of those trajectories. If Cabrera is in the Majors for the rest of the season, he’d accumulate 40 days of MLB service time, meaning he’d need just 132 days in the Majors in 2022 to reach a full year of service and remain on that post-2027 course for free agency.

Cabrera is the latest in a growing line of promising young Marlins starters to reach the Majors. While Miami is dealing with a handful of injuries at present, it’s hard for other clubs not to envy their collection of formidable arms. Cabrera joins Sandy Alcantara, Pablo Lopez, 2021 Rookie of the Year candidate Trevor Rogers, deadline acquisition Jesus Luzardo, Elieser Hernandez and currently injured top prospect Sixto Sanchez among the team’s current core of rotation options, and there are several others behind them. Most notably, last year’s No. 3 overall pick, right-hander Max Meyer, has been nothing short of dominant in Double-A this season.

The Marlins’ system is deeper in arms than in high-end bats, so it remains possible that GM Kim Ng and her staff will look to capitalize on that group of arms and turn some of it into controllable young bats via the offseason trade market. Catcher and center field, in particular, are areas where the Marlins find themselves with a long-term need.

David Hess To Rejoin Rays

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The Rays are bringing David Hess back into the fold, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (via Cathy Peek McEwen). In a corresponding move, Chris Mazza has been optioned to Triple-A, per Rays’ host Neil Solondz (via Twitter).

Hess was traded from the Rays to the Marlins earlier this season. After 14 appearances covering 18 innings with a 8.00 ERA, the Marlins designated him for assignment and he elected free agency. Hess will presumably join the Rays bullpen in the near future.

The 28-year-old Hess spent seven seasons in the Orioles organization after being selected in the fifth round of the 2014 draft. He debuted with Baltimore in 2018 and was an up-and-down member of their staff over the next three seasons, pitching to a 5.86 ERA through 190 1/3 innings.

Marlins Select Austin Pruitt

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The Marlins are selecting Austin Pruitt back to the big league roster, relays Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald (Twitter link). Pruitt had been designated for assignment and passed through outright waivers earlier this month. Righty Nick Neidert was optioned to Triple-A Jacksonville to clear an active roster spot, while the club transferred starter Cody Poteet from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list to open room on the 40-man roster.

Miami acquired Pruitt alongside Bryan de la Cruz in the trade that sent Yimi García to the Astros just before the trade deadline. Pruitt made just one appearance for the Fish before being waived, but he’s now back in the majors after a couple weeks in Jacksonville, where he made three scoreless relief appearances. If he sticks on the Marlins’ 40-man roster this time around, Pruitt can be controlled for the next few seasons via arbitration.

Pruitt worked as a swingman with the Rays between 2017-19, and Houston acquired him heading into the 2020 season as a potential option for the back of the rotation. Unfortunately, he missed all of 2020 and the first half of this season because of an elbow injury that eventually required surgery. His time as an Astro consisted of just 2 2/3 innings of relief, during which he allowed a pair of home runs. Houston designated him for assignment thereafter before including him in the García deal.

Poteet has been out since June 28 due to a right knee sprain. Today’s transfer only rules him out for sixty days from that date, so he could theoretically return by next week. The right-hander was recently shut down from his rehab assignment due to recurring inflammation in the joint, though, so it’s not clear when he’ll be healthy enough to make it back to the mound.

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