Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Marlins, Devin Smeltzer Agree To Minor League Contract

By | at

The Marlins are in agreement with left-hander Devin Smeltzer on a minor league deal, reports Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase (Twitter link). The deal, which contains a non-roster invitation to Spring Training, would pay the ISE Baseball client at a $1MM rate for any time spent in the majors.

Smeltzer has pitched in the majors in each of the past four seasons with the Twins. He’s started 19 of 34 career outings, tallying 140 innings of 3.99 ERA ball at the highest level. Roughly half of that experience came last year, when he was tabbed for 12 starts and a trio of relief appearances that totaled 70 1/3 frames. Smeltzer pitched to a solid 3.71 ERA but without many whiffs or ground balls.

The 27-year-old struck out 13.9% of opponents on a modest 7.4% swinging strike rate. The lack of missed bats isn’t all that surprising for a pitcher who averaged 89.5 MPH on his fastball. Smeltzer compensates for his subpar velocity with strong control. He walked only 6.6% of opposing hitters last season and has doled out free passes at just a 6.4% clip for his MLB career. It was a similar story with Triple-A St. Paul, where he posted a 6.9% walk percentage against a better but hardly overwhelming 20.3% strikeout rate.

Smeltzer’s solid run prevention at the MLB level would’ve been hard to replicate. He benefited from a .252 batting average on balls in play while stranding nearly 83% of the baserunners he allowed. ERA estimators like FIP and SIERA both pegged his work more in the 5.00 range than the sub-4.00 territory he actually managed, and the Twins ran him through outright waivers at the end of the season. Upon clearing, he qualified for minor league free agency.

The former fifth-round pick adds an experienced control specialist to the upper levels of the Miami organization. He owns a 4.40 ERA through parts of five minor league campaigns, walking just 5.5% of opponents along the way. He has experience both starting and working multiple innings out of the bullpen and could factor into either role at some point in 2023. Miami has a deep rotation mix even after trading Pablo López last week, so it seems likely Smeltzer will open the season with Triple-A Jacksonville. He’s out of minor league option years, meaning the Marlins would have to keep him in the majors or offer him to other teams via trade or waivers if he earns an MLB call at any point.

Phillies Sign Ben Bowden, Jeremy Walker, Mark Appel To Minor League Deals

By | at

The Phillies announced a number of non-roster invitations to big league camp this morning. While most of that group was either already in the system or had previously been reported to have an agreement with Philadelphia, a trio of new names with MLB experience were among the batch: righties Jeremy Walker and Mark Appel, and left-hander Ben Bowden.

Walker, 27, has six big league appearances to his name. Those came with the Braves back in 2019, when he worked 9 1/3 innings of two-run ball out of Brian Snitker’s bullpen. Walker had posted a 3.97 ERA with quality peripherals that season for Triple-A Gwinnett and looked to be a potential middle relief option for Atlanta. Unfortunately, he missed the entire 2020 season with a shoulder impingement and was released the following offseason.

The former 5th-round pick signed a minor league deal with the Giants shortly thereafter. He missed the entire ’21 season as well but returned to affiliated action last year. Walker made 28 appearances for San Francisco’s top affiliate, posting a 6.88 ERA over 35 1/3 innings in an extremely hitter-friendly environment. He had roughly average strikeout and walk marks and still attracted the interest of the Rays, who sent infielder Ford Proctor to San Francisco for Walker at the trade deadline. He closed out the year with 21 2/3 frames of 5.91 ERA ball for Tampa Bay’s top affiliate and didn’t get an MLB look before hitting minor league free agency.

Bowden also spent time in Triple-A with San Francisco and Tampa Bay last season. The 28-year-old began the season with the Rockies but landed in Tampa via waiver claim. The Rays successfully ran him through waivers and kept him in the minors before dealing him to San Francisco in late July. Between the three clubs, the Vanderbilt product posted a 5.46 ERA over 57 2/3 frames of relief. He punched out an excellent 29.9% of opposing hitters but had a similarly lofty 13.8% walk percentage.

A former second-round pick and Futures Game participant, Bowden has long tantalized with swing-and-miss stuff but struggled with shaky control in the minors. He’d spent his entire career in the Colorado organization prior to last year, reaching the majors in 2021. Bowden provided the Rox 35 2/3 innings of 6.56 ERA ball as a rookie, fanning 23.7% of opponents against an 11.9% walk rate. That’s his only MLB experience to date.

Appel is a more familiar name to Phillies fans. The former first overall pick looked as if he’d never reach the majors when he stepped away from the game after the 2017 season. He returned to the Philadelphia organization in 2021 and got another crack last year despite some initial rust. That paid off when Appel posted strong numbers at Triple-A Lehigh Valley. In June, he secured his long-awaited big league call — making for one of the league’s better stories in 2022.

The 31-year-old allowed only two runs through his first 10 1/3 innings. He averaged 95 MPH on his sinker and racked up grounders at a massive 56.3% clip to put himself in the middle innings mix. That preceded an unfortunate battle with elbow inflammation that ended his season. At year’s end, Philadelphia ran Appel through waivers and sent him to free agency. He returns to the organization a few months later and will try to pitch his way back onto the 40-man roster.

Marlins Back Off Pursuit Of Yuli Gurriel

By | at

The Marlins have scaled back their efforts to sign baseman Yuli Gurriel, per Craig Mish of the Miami Herald, who reports that they’ve “stopped any aggressive pursuit” of the former Astros infielder. MLB.com had reported over the weekend that the Marlins were “moving toward a deal” with the 38-year-old Gurriel. The addition of another first baseman remains possible, Mish adds, but Gurriel doesn’t appear likely to land with the Fish at this point.

It’s something of an about-face for a Marlins team that looked to be gearing up for the addition of a second premium contact hitter just days after acquiring Luis Arraez from the Twins. Gurriel has fanned in just 11.2% of his 3305 Major League plate appearances since signing with the Astros in 2016; this past season’s 12.5% strikeout rate was a career-high for Gurriel, but it was also still more than ten percentage points better than the league average.

The Marlins reportedly had interest in using Gurriel at multiple positions, bouncing him between first base, second base and third base. That’d be a change for Gurriel, who outside of two innings at the hot corner in 2021, has been exclusively a first baseman for each of the past three seasons. Gurriel generally has a strong defensive track record, though metrics like Defensive Runs Saved (-2) and Outs Above Average (-9) soured on him in 2022 just one year after he won a Gold Glove in 2021.

If Miami is still seeking another option at first base, the free-agent market has largely been picked over but still has a few options. Old friend Jesus Aguilar remains unsigned, as do sluggers Luke Voit and Miguel Sano. Like Gurriel, all three are in search of a rebound campaign from lackluster performances and/or injury. Miami currently projects for a $103MM payroll, per Roster Resource, which would be only the third time topping $100MM in franchise history. It’s not clear just how much Miami has left to spend, though their weekend link to Gurriel clearly suggests there’s at least a bit of payroll capacity left.

It’s been a generally quiet winter with regard to Gurriel, although Daniel Alvarez Montes of El Extra Base reported over the weekend that the Twins were also in the mix to acquire his services. It’s not clear at this time if the dwindling talks with Miami are reflective of progress on the Twins’ behalf.

Minnesota added another right-handed bat last night when acquiring Michael A. Taylor from the Royals, though Gurriel would give them another contact-oriented infield bat to help offset Arraez’s departure. Former top prospect Alex Kirilloff seems likely to handle first base for the Twins in 2023 — assuming he’s recovered from a pair of wrist surgeries (one in 2021 and another in 2022). Gurriel would give them an experienced righty bat to pair with the lefty-hitting Kirilloff, and he could mix in at designated hitter as well, where Minnesota currently looks like they’ll cycle through a number of options.

Read The Transcript Of Our Chat With Former MLB Pitcher Jacob Turner

By | at

Considered the “consensus top high school righthander available” by Baseball America back in 2009, Jacob Turner was drafted ninth overall by the Tigers out of Westminster Christian Academy in Missouri.  He stood at 6’5″, 210 lbs and touched 98 with his fastball.   Adviser Scott Boras was able to get the 18-year-old Turner a $5.5MM Major League contract, most of which came in the form of a signing bonus.

After two years in the minors, MLB.com ranked Turner the 15th prospect in the game, ahead of future stars such as Nolan Arenado, Zack Wheeler, and Francisco Lindor.  Turner made his MLB debut at the age of 20, pitching well against the Angels for Jim Leyland’s Tigers.  At that point in late 2011, Turner profiled as a future number two or three starter in the Majors.

The following year, Turner picked up his first big league win on July 22nd against the White Sox.  The 2012 Tigers would go on to win the pennant, but they’d do so without Turner.  The day after that first career W, they sent him packing to the Marlins for more immediate help in the form of Anibal Sanchez and Omar Infante.

By late May 2013, Turner had secured a spot in a Marlins rotation that also featured Jose Fernandez, Tom Koehler, Ricky Nolasco, Nathan Eovaldi, and Henderson Alvarez.  Turner’s age-22 season would turn out to be his best, as he put together 20 starts with a 3.74 ERA that year.

Things took a turn in 2014, as Turner lost both his rotation and 40-man roster spots with the Marlins, joining the Cubs on a waiver claim.  An elbow injury spoiled Turner’s 2015 season, which ended in a crosstown waiver claim by the White Sox.  Turner went on to a stint with the Nationals, followed by returns to the Marlins and Tigers.  For the 2019 season, Turner moved to KBO’s Kia Tigers.

Turner’s time in MLB was over before his 30th birthday, certainly not the career some expected of him back when he was starring in high school and the low minors.  But he still competed for parts of seven seasons in the bigs, pitching 369 innings and making 56 starts.  The 22-year-old kid was pretty darn good in the Majors in 2013, going at least seven innings five different times that year.  One career highlight: a one-run, complete game victory over the Padres that year.  Across those seven seasons, Turner punched out many of the game’s stars, including Bryce Harper, Buster Posey, Carlos Beltran, Jose Bautista, Nolan Arenado, David Wright, and Freddie Freeman.

Still only 31 years old, Turner now runs a company that “helps educate athletes around money and helps them be good stewards of the money earned in their careers,” as he puts it.  He’s on Twitter @TheSuddenWealth, where he posted a thread last summer about his experiences that ended up going viral.  Jacob notes that people can DM him on Twitter to get in touch, and you can view his website here.

Jacob took questions from MLBTR readers earlier today.  Click here to read the transcript!

If you’re a current or former MLB player, we’d love to have you for a chat with our readers!  It’s a great way to interact with fans for an hour, and you get to choose which questions you publish.  Click here to contact us.

The Opener: Hall Of Fame, DFAs, Player Chat

By | at

As the end of hot stove season and the return of baseball creeps ever closer, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:

1. Hall of Fame results announced tonight:

At 5pm CST tonight, the results of the 2023 Hall of Fame ballot will be announced. Todd Helton, Scott Rolen, and Billy Wagner have all done very well among the public revealed ballots and stand the best chances of getting in this year, but there will be intrigue involving other players, as well. How close will Jeff Kent get in his final year of eligibility? Will Gary Sheffield make a big enough leap in his penultimate year of eligibility that he might be able to get inducted next year? How will Carlos Beltran fare as the first of the 2017 Astros to hit the ballot? Will Alex Rodriguez make gains over his 34.3% year one showing last year? We’ll find out tonight.

2. Unresolved DFAs come due:

Two players were designated for assignment seven days ago, and those DFAs are due to reach a conclusion today. The Cubs DFA’d righty Manuel Rodriguez last week in order to claim righty Julian Merryweather off waivers from Toronto, while the Mariners designated outfielder Alberto Rodriguez in order to claim righty J.B. Bukauskas off waivers from Arizona. Manuel Rodriguez showed impressive stuff despite poor results in a late-season call up with Chicago in September 2021, but missed most of the 2022 season with an elbow injury and had lost some velocity upon his return this past September. Overall, he has a career 4.88 ERA in 31 1/3 innings of work in the majors. Alberto Rodriguez, on the other hand, has not yet made his major league debut. He was added to the Mariners’ 40-man roster in November 2021 to protect him from the Rule 5 draft. Neither player has the right to reject and outright assignment at this point in their career, so they can be retained by their club if they pass through waivers unclaimed.

3. MLBTR Player Chat

In addition to the usual Tuesday chat with MLBTR’s Steve Adams at 1pm CST, MLBTR will be hosting a live chat with former big league right-hander Jacob Turner. Turner, the No. 9 overall pick in 2009, played in the majors for seven years, debuting in 2011 with the Tigers and making the final appearance of his career with them again in 2018. He also played for the Cubs, White Sox, and Nationals during his time in the big leagues, but most of his playing time came with the Marlins, who acquired him as the headliner in a 2012 trade sending Anibal Sanchez and Omar Infante to Detroit. As a Marlin, Turner threw 244 2/3 innings across 51 games (39 starts) and pitched to a 4.67 ERA (4.27 FIP). Tune in at 10am CST to participate in Turner’s chat. If you missed yesterday’s player chat with knuckleballer Mickey Jannis, you can read the transcript here.

Arte Moreno No Longer Pursuing Sale Of Angels

By | at

The Angels announced that the Moreno family is ending the exploratory process to sell the team and will continue ownership throughout the 2023 season and beyond.

“During this process, it became clear that we have unfinished business and feel we can make a positive impact on the future of the team and the fan experience,” owner Arte Moreno says in a statement released by the club. “This offseason we committed to a franchise record player payroll and still want to accomplish our goal of bringing a World Series Championship back to our fans. We are excited about this next chapter of Angels Baseball. We are grateful to Galatioto Sports Partners for their outstanding efforts throughout the process that allowed us to meet with a number of highly qualified individuals and groups who expressed strong interest in the Club. However, as discussions advanced and began to crystallize, we realized our hearts remain with the Angels, and we are not ready to part ways with the fans, players and our employees.”

Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred also released a statement on the matter, as relayed by Sam Blum of The Athletic. “Despite strong buyer interest in the Angels, Arte Moreno’s love of the game is most important to him. I am very pleased that the Moreno Family has decided to continue owning the team.”

Moreno, now 76, announced in August that he would explore a sale of the team. There weren’t many details of the sales process reported in the interim, though Manfred did say in December that the club was hoping to have the sale completed by Opening Day. It appears that Moreno either didn’t find an offer to his liking or had a change of heart and will keep hold of the team for the foreseeable future.

He purchased the team from the Walt Disney Company for $184MM in April of 2003. The Angels were reigning champions at that time, having won the 2002 World Series. They qualified for the postseason a few times in the next few years but have since gone into a dry spell. They have made the playoffs just once since 2009, getting swept by the Royals in the 2014 ALDS and not making it back since. That’s come despite having some superstar players on the roster in those years, include current Angels Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani. The club’s payroll has regularly been in the top 10 in the league in Moreno’s tenure but he’s garnered a reputation as being one of the owners more likely to meddle in baseball decisions, which has made him a divisive figure among the Angels’ fans.

This offseason, despite the potential sale hanging over the club, they have been quite active in pursuing upgrades. They traded for Gio Urshela and Hunter Renfroe while signing free agents Brandon Drury, Brett Phillips, Tyler Anderson and Carlos Estévez. That’s bumped the club’s payroll up to $206MM, per Roster Resource, with a competitive balance tax calculation of $220MM. That payroll would indeed be a franchise record as Moreno stated, with Cot’s Baseball Contracts having their previous high as last year’s $189MM figure. Whether that’s enough for the club to break its postseason drought remains to be seen. They will be looking to chase the Astros, who have dominated the division for years and just won the World Series. The young and resurgent Mariners just grabbed a Wild Card spot last year and the Rangers have been extremely aggressive in pursuing upgrades over the past couple of years.

The continuation of the Moreno regime will lead to various questions that will need to be resolved in the years and months to come. From on-field perspective, the biggest unknown is the future of Ohtani. The unprecedented two-way superstar is entering his final year of club control before he’s slated to reach free agency. Many have been speculating about whether a new owner would be motivated to give Ohtani a mega deal to stay an Angel or would prefer to start fresh by clearing house and beginning a rebuild. Now those questions will have to be directed towards Moreno and whether they can find common ground on a deal or if Ohtani is determined to spend the next part of his career elsewhere.

Off the field, there will be questions about the issues that perhaps led to Moreno pursuing a sale in the first place. A company created by Moreno was attempting to purchase the 150-acre Angel Stadium site from the city of Anaheim with a goal of using the land to develop commercial space, housing, restaurants and more. A tentative agreement was reached at a $320MM price point but the potential sale drew heavy criticism from many in the area and a federal investigation was launched into alleged corruption, violations of state laws, and insider information being shared as part of the deal. Anaheim mayor Harry Sidhu was personally cited in the investigation and ultimately resigned. Anaheim City Council later voted against the deal in May of 2022. The club’s lease on the stadium runs through the end of the 2029 season with a club option to extend that lease through 2038.

There will also be league-wide questions to be answered, as the Angels were one of two teams exploring sales this winter. The other is the Nationals, though that situation appears to be mired in TV rights issues and nowhere near a resolution. For any groups interested in getting into the MLB ownership game, those two paths that appeared open a few months ago now appear to be closed or perhaps untenable. The league has expressed interest in expanding from 30 to 32 teams though Manfred has repeatedly said that he would like each of the A’s and Rays to resolve their respective stadium situations before expansion will be on the table.

Alex Anthopoulos Discusses Braves’ Shortstop Situation

By | at

The Braves watched Dansby Swanson depart in free agency this winter. They’ll enter the season with something of a question mark at shortstop for the first time in six years as a result.

As things stand, shortstop looks like a two-man battle between young infielder Vaughn Grissom and utilityman Orlando Arcia. Grissom, 22, is seemingly the organization’s shortstop of the future. He has just 41 MLB games under his belt and comes with some questions about his ability to handle the position defensively, as many prospect evaluators have suggested he’d be a better fit for second base or left field. Arcia has a much longer MLB track record but owns a modest .243/.295/.369 line in just under 2200 career plate appearances.

Veteran shortstop Elvis Andrus remains unsigned and would seem a viable fit on paper for a win-now Atlanta team in a competitive division. There’s no indication the Braves have explored the possibility of adding a stopgap shortstop, though. Atlanta has placed a decent amount of trust in their highly-touted young players in recent seasons, and president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos expressed optimism about the in-house candidates over the weekend.

Anthopoulos acknowledged that some have defensive concerns with Grissom but noted that well-respected infield coach Ron Washington has offered strong reviews on his offseason work. “I can see how the scouting community might have questions about Vaughn. I had questions about Vaughn when I first saw him,” Anthopoulos said (link via Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution). “And I’ve been wrong plenty of times. The difference is we have a guy in Ron Washington who’s unbelievable with this stuff. He wouldn’t just say something to say it. … And, look, we don’t know how Vaughn’s going to hit. He’s got to earn the job. Orlando Arcia can do it, too. But Wash really believes in Vaughn. We believe in Vaughn, too, but we’re going to go with who we think the expert in that area is, and I don’t know anybody better in the game than Ron.”

Certainly, the Braves would love for Grissom to seize the position out of the gate. The right-handed hitter impressed during his first crack of major league action, hitting .291/.353/.440 with five home runs over 156 plate appearances. He showed an aggressive approach but quality bat-to-ball skills. Grissom played mostly second base with Ozzie Albies injured last season, with public defensive metrics painting him a couple runs below average in 347 innings of work.

Albies will be back at the keystone, while Austin Riley has third base secured. The only non-shortstop position in the lineup that’s unsettled is left field, where a hodgepodge of players led by Eddie Rosario look to be competing for reps. Skipper Brian Snitker stressed over the weekend that Grissom wouldn’t factor into the corner outfield during exhibition play, with the club viewing him solely as an infielder (via David O’Brien of the Athletic).

The 28-year-old Arcia is a lower-upside veteran fallback. He’s coming off the best offensive showing of his career in a part-time role, hitting .244/.316/.416 with nine homers through 234 trips to the plate. That was the first above-average slash line of his seven big league seasons. Arcia made hard contact at a career-high 42.5% clip to collect 18 extra-base hits over 68 games. It was a nice year for the 28-year-old to at least put himself in the mix for the shortstop position if Grissom falters, although his modest career track record at the plate raises questions about whether he could maintain his 2022 production over a full year of everyday shortstop reps.

Rays Continuing To Explore Market For Offensive Help

By | at

Rays president of baseball operations Erik Neander told reporters during his season-closing press conference back in October that the club wanted to add a big bat this winter — particularly of the left-handed-hitting variety — after Tampa Bay’s offense managed to score only one run over 24 innings in that marathon two-game Wild Card Series ouster versus the Guardians.

Rays hitters combined for a .686 OPS during the 2022 regular season, which ranked 25th among all 30 major league clubs. And against right-handed pitching, their combined team batting line was just .234/.305/.373 across a sample size of 4,580 total plate appearances.

Nothing overly exciting has come together for the Rays up to this point, and Neander acknowledged in a recent chat with Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times that it’s probably too late to make a meaningful offensive addition from what’s left on the open market.

“As the winter went on, and as we spoke publicly, I think the focus was more on an established player, ideally left-handed, being the right type of player for our group,” Neander told Topkin. “We feel really good about the assortment of breakthrough and bounce-back players we have on our roster currently. It was really more about adding an established, consistent offensive player, and there aren’t that many of them out there that are available.”

There was chatter about a number of possible pursuits to help the cause — the Rays were linked at various points to free agents like Josh Bell and Andrew McCutchen. They were also said to be in the hunt for Sean Murphy before the Athletics dealt him to the Braves as part of a three-team swap that also involved the Brewers. Topkin writes that Tampa Bay also made runs at Michael Brantley and Brandon Belt before those players signed elsewhere.

The hope is that a trade for run-scoring help might come together sometime this spring, or better yet before the Rays even roll into camp in Orlando, Florida. Neander also plans to keep his ear open for in-season moves in 2023, should those “breakthrough and bounce-back players” — think Wander Franco, Josh Lowe, and Jonathan Aranda — fail to come through over the course of the first half.

It’s all quite daunting in an AL East that features the Blue Jays (3rd in combined OPS last year at .760) and the Yankees (4th in combined OPS at .751), but Topkin suggests the Rays could have room to add to a roughly $70MM payroll as the baseball calendar moves toward the summer months.

Maybe there could be a circle-back with the A’s, who always seem to be open for business and would likely listen on Seth Brown even after he cranked 25 home runs in 150 games last year. Or perhaps there might be a match with Twins on Max Kepler given Minnesota’s recent addition of Michael A. Taylor from the Royals. One thing the Rays do have is prospects, both low-level and the more MLB-ready types, and Tampa Bay’s front office has certainly never lacked for creativity in finding ways to pull off under-the-radar improvements.

Michael Hill Withdraws Name From Astros’ GM Search

By | at

The Astros have been without a general manager since James Click was surprisingly dismissed just days after the club won the World Series. Reporting last week indicated that Michael Hill, former president of baseball operations for the Marlins, was one of the candidates for the position. However, Jon Heyman of The New York Post reports today that Hill has removed himself from consideration (Twitter links).

Hill, 51, would have brought plenty of experience to the role, having joined the Marlins in 2002. He worked his way up through various positions, including assistant general manager, general manager and president of baseball operations, holding that latter title until his contract wasn’t renewed following the 2020 season.

He has since been working for Major League Baseball as senior vice president of on-field operations. He’s been connected to various front office openings over the past few years, including with the Angels, Mets, Phillies and now the Astros. However, Heyman reports that Hill is happy in his role with the league and would like to stick around as the new rules are implemented. The 2023 season will see the league implementing a pitch clock as well as limits on defensive shifts and pickoff attempts. It seems the Houston job isn’t enough to tempt Hill away from overseeing the transition to this new brand of baseball.

That leaves two known candidates connected to the job in Braves vice president of scouting Dana Brown and former Giants general manager Bobby Evans. It’s possible that owner Jim Crane is considering others that haven’t been reported yet but it seems like Hill can be crossed off the list. Crane himself has seemingly been leading the baseball decision making since his disagreements with Click led to the vacancy a couple of months ago.

Aaron Slegers Announces Retirement

By | at

Aaron Slegers announced his retirement from baseball on his personal Twitter account last week, citing an “ongoing shoulder injury” that has led to him “calling it a career” at age 30.

Slegers was selected by the Twins in the fifth round of the 2013 MLB Draft out of Indiana University and went on to make his big league debut with Minnesota in 2017 before then bouncing between the Rays and Angels. The sinkerballer’s best season came with Tampa Bay in 2020, when he posted a 3.46 ERA through 26 innings during the shortened season. Slegers made three playoff appearances during the Rays’ run to an American League pennant, providing Kevin Cash with five innings of one-run ball during the postseason.

Over parts of five MLB seasons, the right-hander worked to a 5.46 ERA with 59 strikeouts and 28 walks across 89 total major league innings, operating mostly in relief. He induced grounders on a solid 51% of batted balls over the course of his career.

Slegers struggled with the Angels in 2021 and was outrighted off their roster in August. He signed a minor league deal with the Rays for 2022 but made it through only 2 2/3 innings in the rookie-level Florida Complex League before his shoulder began barking again. He threw his last pitch on July 2022 against the FCL affiliate of the Braves.

“I know baseball has blessed me with talents far wider than the skills on the field and has molded me into who I am as a person,” Slegers wrote in his retirement post. “Thank you to all who have supported me.” MLBTR wishes Slegers the best in his post-playing endeavors.

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

hide arrows scroll to top